The research comes from Australia, which was the first country to introduce plain packaging. Australia formally introduced plain brown packaging, accompanies by graphic health warnings taking up three-quarters of the front of the pack, for all tobacco products on 1 December 2012.
The BMJ Open research looked at the impact of the policy on 536 smokers in the state of Victoria.
The findings come days after ministers were slammed for putting on hold a plan to impose plain packs in England.
Downing Street denied the Tories’ election strategist, Lynton Crosby, had been responsible for the delay to plain packaging.
Crosby’s links with alcohol and tobacco companies have been called into question by some MPs and media publications.
Defending the decision to delay, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government wanted more time to see how the policy had worked in Australia.
The BMJ Open study gives an early indication of the latter.
Country-wide introduction
Researchers polled a sample of smokers during November 2012 when plain packs were already available in the run up to the country-wide introduction of the legislation.
Almost three out of four (72.3%) were smoking cigarettes from plain packs while the remainder (27.7%) were still using branded packs with smaller health warnings.
Compared with branded pack smokers, smokers using plain packs were 66% more likely to think their cigarettes were poorer quality than a year ago and they were 70% more likely to say they found them less satisfying.
They were also 81% more likely to have thought about quitting at least once a day during the previous week.
And plain pack smokers were 51% more likely to back the plain pack policy than were brand pack smokers.
