Technical Paper 2:
Tobacco Control in Australia: making smoking history
Research, evaluation, monitoring and surveillance
- Overview and summary of action proposed
- Summary of proposed measures
- 1 - Introduction: the big picture
2 - Progress in meeting National Tobacco Strategy objectives: trends and concerns- 3 - Progress in Australia on recommended policies and programs
- 4 - What next, what first and for what cost?
- Major sources used in this document
- References
Addendum for October 2008 to June 2009- Goals of tobacco control: To reduce the human, social and financial costs of smoking
- Objectives of tobacco control: To reduce use of tobacco products and exposure to the toxic elements of tobacco smoke
- Comprehensive strategies to reduce smoking
- Tobacco control strategies
- Promotion of Quit and Smoke-free messages
- Services and treatment
- Addressing disadvantage and tailoring services
- Supporting parents and education
- Keeping tobacco control on the agenda
- Cost effectiveness of tobacco control
- Research, evaluation, monitoring and surveillance
- References
- Attachment 1: Proposed amendment concerning plain packaging, UK Health Bill
- Attachment 2: Sample of Studies Pulished January to May 2009 suggested or concluding health effects other thn those already covered in current Consumer Product Information in Australia
A new institute, the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies (SI), has been funded by American Legacy Foundation to play a leadership role in strengthening the national agenda for next generation research in tobacco control. The SI will work collaboratively to stimulate research. It aims to serve a ‘think-tank’ role in order to speed high-risk innovative new research priorities. The SI will work with the research and practice communities, public, private, government, insurers, policymakers, philanthropy and other stakeholders to support an innovative and forward-thinking research agenda. Source: American Legacy Foundation, 2008-10-09.
Although comprehensive tobacco control programs have moved towards logic models that incorporate political and social intermediate objectives such as smoke-free worksites, tobacco control planning and evaluation have been hampered by the lack of timely, comprehensive data about the attitudes and practices of US adults. The Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control (SCS-TC) was developed as a methodology to objectively measure the fundamental position of tobacco control in society and thereby provide a data collection system to monitor program impacts. The survey includes items to measure progress toward intermediate objectives such as policy changes, changes in social norms, reductions in exposure of individuals to environmental tobacco smoke and rejection of pro-tobacco influences. The results presented on the www.socialclimate.org website are based on annual, cross-sectional assessments of the social climate of tobacco control within the United States from 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
The Environment Working Group of the National Tobacco Monitoring, Research and Evaluation Workshop has drawn attention to the importance of systematic surveillance and monitoring of key program inputs and outputs and environmental influences as being central to understanding the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of tobacco control efforts. It has suggested two key priorities for monitoring activities in the United States:
- Develop and implement a national system for local tobacco control ordinance surveillance.
- Develop and implement a comprehensive program monitoring system that is used by all states and supported by all funding agencies.[224]