Broadcasting Mass Media Campaigns And Raising Cigarette Prices Reduces Smoking Prevalence

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 16 Jun 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Researchers used monthly survey data (1995-2006) from the five largest Australian capital cities to assess the impact of several tobacco control policies and televised anti-smoking advertising on adult smoking prevalence. Increasing cigarette costliness and greater exposure to anti-tobacco mass media campaigns were found to significantly reduce smoking prevalence.

However, monthly sales of nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) and bupropion, exposure to NRT advertising and smoke-free restaurant laws had no detectable impact on smoking prevalence at the population level.

"The public health gains from reducing tobacco use are huge and incontrovertible, yet governments rarely scale their responses appropriately or consider expenditure on tobacco control as an ongoing and essential service, as they would with primary health care, intensive care and ambulance services," the study's authors said.

"Impact of Tobacco Control Policies and Mass Media Campaigns on Monthly Adult Smoking Prevalence"
Melanie A. Wakefield, Sarah Durkin, Matthew J. Spittal, Mohammad Siahpush, Michelle Scollo, Julie A. Simpson, Simon Chapman, Victoria White, David Hill
American Journal of Public Health, 10.2105/AJPH.2007.128991
Click here to view Abstract online

The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) is dedicated to original work in research, research methods, and program evaluation in the field of public health. This prestigious journal also regularly publishes authoritative editorials and commentaries and serves as a forum for the analysis of health policy. The stated mission of the Journal is "to advance public health research, policy, practice, and education." All published papers have undergone rigorous peer review (only one out of five submitted papers is accepted for publication). Each month, the nation's most influential public health professionals turn to AJPH for the most current, authoritative, in-depth information in the field.

American Journal of Public Health