Background:
The WHO MPOWER strategy recommends the use of health warnings on cigarette packs about the impact of tobacco on health. Previous studies have shown the association of noticing warnings and making a quit attempt. Argentina introduced warnings as by the National Tobacco Control Law in 2012. This study aimed to measure the association of health warnings and attitudes towards quitting.

Methods:
Secondary analysis from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) done in Argentina in 2012, restricted to adult smokers of 18 years old or more. Results from a population-based study were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression modelling for the association of noticing health warnings and having favorable attitudes (referring one quit attempt during last year, quit less than a year ago or reported intention of quitting during the next month or year).

Results:
Our sample included 1,717 smokers and recent quitters representing 6,431,623 in a population-weighted projection (mean age 40.21 years, 37.77% women). Favorable attitude was present in 26.15% 95%CI 20.53-32.67 (mean age 41.41 years, 35.86% females). Most of them (83.55%) referred noticing warnings during the last month and 40.09% (95%CI 33.12-47.49) admitted warnings made them consider to quit. Multivariate analysis showed health warnings were strongly associated with favorable attitudes towards smoking cessation (OR 4.64 95%CI 2.28-9.41, p=0.001) after adjusting by age, gender, educational level and income.

Conclusions:
Noticing health warnings on cigarette pack was associated to favorable attitudes toward cessation. They had a robust effect and were effective regardless of smoker demographics.