Impact of Tobacco Control Policies and Mass Media Campaigns on Monthly Adult Smoking Prevalence

Abstract

Increases in the real price of cigarettes and tobacco control mass media campaigns broadcast at sufficient exposure levels and at regular intervals are critical for reducing population smoking prevalence.

Commentary on Simset al. (2014) and Langleyet al. (2014): Mass media campaigns require adequate and sustained funding to change population health behaviours

“…This study underlines the importance of smokers being exposed to regular ongoing campaign activity to inform and remind them of the importance of quitting and to re-energize their desire to quit, so that they put quitting at the top of their priority list. This is consistent with the relatively low durability of commercial advertising impact on sales [1] and with recent studies that indicate that anti-smoking campaign effects on behaviour last for just a few weeks or months [6,7,12]. Ongoing exposure to anti-smoking messages is especially important to counter an addictive behaviour such as smoking, where the weight of addiction does not disappear when the campaigns do [11].…”

“…Sims and colleagues' study [4] indicates that each person in the population needs to be exposed to approximately four anti-smoking advertisements per month to result in a detectable impact on smoking prevalence. These findings have a remarkably high degree of consistency with previous studies from Australia [6,7] and the United States [8,9], which indicate that moderate to high levels of intensity (i.e. exposure to four to eight advertisements per month per person) are necessary for campaigns to 'cut through' the competing clutter of commercial advertising.…”

The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) Research Needs Statement 2010

“…The best results for smoking cessation are achieved with a combination of comprehensive national tobacco control policies and programmes, 221,222 together with individual psychological support and medical therapy. [223][224][225] Many countries have public campaigns for smoking cessation, but in most countries the place for smoking cessation is not well defined despite the publication of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco control.…”

“…149,212 As many as 80% of smokers see their GP once or more per year, 228 giving the primary healthcare team a unique opportunity to identify smokers, assess their motivation to quit and offer help and support. Time is a barrier to primary care smoking interventions; however, brief advice can increase the number of smokers that make an attempt to quit 222,223 even when an attempt had not been planned. 229,230 The impact of brief advice in special populations (e.g.…”

The impact of TV mass media campaigns on calls to a National Quitline and the use of prescribed nicotine replacement therapy: a structural vector autoregression analysis

“…The mediums of television and radio, with their considerable reach into the general population, have been used most commonly to deliver health messages on tobacco control 1. There is a growing body of international evidence that MMCs can prevent both the uptake of smoking in young people and promote smoking cessation in adults 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Most recently, evidence from England has shown that TV MMCs are effective in triggering quitting behaviour in adults and were responsible for an 11.2% decline in cigarette consumption and 13.5% of the decline in prevalence between 2002 and 2009 7.…”