OTRU prevention projects are investigating trends and use of contraband products, the effect of pricing on the brand preferences of young people, the influence of student and school level characteristics on student tobacco use behaviour, and the factors related to the retail environment that influence health outcomes.
Cigarette Brands Smoked by Ontario Youth
Start Date: April 2012
Expected Date of Completion: March 2013
Project Lead: K. Stephen Brown
Principal Investigators: K. Stephen Brown, Joanna Cohen, Robert Schwartz
Funding Source: Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Project Description
Tobacco use among Ontario youth continues to be influenced greatly by the availability of contraband; but other factors may also be at play in the brand choices made by youth. This project explores patterns of youth cigarette use across the last 3 cycles of the Youth Smoking Survey using information about purchase of different brands of cigarettes including contraband, premium brands, discount brands, roll your own. These analyses will help to inform strategies for countering tobacco marketing to youth.
Main Research Questions
Methodology
Secondary survey analysis
Creating Healthy Retail Environments
Start Date: April 2012
Expected Date of Completion: March 2013
Project Lead: Michael Chaiton
Principal Investigators: Joanna Cohen, John Garcia, Roberta Ferrence, Robert Schwartz
Project Team: Cathy Mah
Funding Source: Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Project Description
The number one recommendation made by Tobacco Scientific Advisory Committee for the renewal of the Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy focused on the retailing of tobacco. This project explores a potential policy solution to work in partnership with retailers to develop or encourage healthy retail environments. Across North America, including in Ontario, jurisdictions are aiming to partner with small retailers to promote health, particularly in rural and underserviced neighbourhoods. However, most existing programs and policies have focused primarily on addressing food availability and research is needed to understand the impact of these policies and how they may be expanded to address tobacco control.
Scope
The project includes a literature review that explores current knowledge on how the retail environment (broadly defined) influences on population health outcomes and evaluate existing policy options for tobacco control.
This review is being leveraged into a research proposal to develop and assess interventions for the retail environment for tobacco and food in order to inform policy decisions aimed at creating healthy retail environments.
Main Research Questions
The proposal will develop into a mixed method research program to develop a better understanding of the retail environment for tobacco, alcohol, and food, including the role of retailers, economic and health impacts, and policy options.
Research Aims
Methodology
Literature Review leading to mixed methods including survey, and qualitative interviews
Estimating the Size of the Cigarette Contraband Market in Canada
Start Date: April 2012
Expected Date of Completion: March 2013
Project Lead: K. Stephen Brown
Principal Investigators: K. Stephen Brown, Sue Bondy, Joanna Cohen, Roberta Ferrence, Robert Schwartz
Funding Source: Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Project Description
Decades of research have produced overwhelming evidence that tobacco taxes can reduce tobacco use, save lives and increase government tax revenue. The effectiveness of taxes at reducing tobacco use provides a strong incentive for tobacco users and manufacturers to devise ways to avoid or evade tobacco taxes. This study documents levels and trends in tobacco users’ consumption of contraband cigarettes. Additionally, the size of the cigarette contraband market will be estimated by contrasting estimates of legal cigarettes sales with consumption estimates based on survey data.
Main Research Questions
Methodology
Secondary Analysis of existing survey data from multiple sources
Formative Evaluation of Risk-Based Enforcement Pilot
Start Date: April 2011
Expected Date of Completion: September 2013
Project Lead: Maritt Kirst
Principal Investigators: Roberta Ferrence, Robert Schwartz
Project Team: Jolene Dubray
Source of Funding: Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Project Description
This project evaluates pilot projects for a new risk-based enforcement regime. OTRU, along with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Health Promotion Division, is working with three public health units to tailor and pilot new evidence-informed tobacco control enforcement approaches to youth access policy compliance. The project involves subsequent evaluation of this approach in the participating public health units.
Main Research Questions
What are the impacts of evidence informed tobacco control enforcement approaches on youth access policy compliance?
Methodology
Administrative data analyses and interviews with enforcement stakeholders.
Identifying High-Risk School Environments for Tobacco Use
Start Date: April 2012
Expected Date of Completion: March 2013
Project Lead: K. Stephen Brown
Principal Investigator: K. Stephen Brown, Robert Schwartz
Funding Source: Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Project Description
Determining the school-level characteristics that are associated with different youth tobacco use behaviours would provide valuable insight for informing the future development, tailoring and targeting of school-based tobacco control initiatives to where they are most likely to have impact. The 2010-11 Youth Smoking Survey (YSS) is a nationally representative sample of Canadian youth in grades 9 to12 attending public and private schools in 9 Canadian provinces. The present study will explore student-level data, and program and policy data, and built environment data for all of the secondary schools who participated in the 2010-11 YSS (school-level data).
Main Research Questions
Methodology
Secondary survey analysis
Intervention Research on the New Rapidly Unfolding Ontario Tobacco Strategy: Policy Window for a Population Health Model of Tobacco Retail Sales
Start Date: April 2012
Expected Date of Completion: March 2013
Principal Investigator: Michael Chaiton
Co-investigators: Joanna Cohen, Kevin McDonald, Melodie Tilson, Bill Maga, Norman Giesbrecht
Project Team: Graham Mecredy
Source of Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Project Description
Despite advances, tobacco control policy has not yet addressed the physical availability of tobacco products in the retail environment. These products are sold in corner stores, grocery stores and gas stations putting them within easy reach of those most vulnerable to nicotine addiction, especially youth and lower socioeconomic groups.
There is a need to address the problem of widespread availability of tobacco products in the retail environment. However, more research is needed in order to be able to recommend specific policy interventions. This project addresses this need by analyzing and evaluating options for reducing tobacco retail outlet density.
Main Research Questions
Methodology
Smoking Co-morbidities during the Transition from High School Post-Graduation: A Scoping Review
Start Date: April 2012
Expected Date of Completion: March 2013
Project Leads: Michael Chaiton and Maritt Kirst
Principal Investigators: Sue Bondy, Steve Brown, Roberta Ferrence, Robert Schwartz
Project Team: Graham Mecredy, Tracey Borland
Source of Funding: Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Project Description
Cigarette smoking prevalence rates increase substantially during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, and many young people initiate smoking after the age of 18. Young adulthood is also a time when co-occurring health risk behaviours and issues, such as problem drinking, illicit drug use, and mental health problems may begin to emerge.
This project undertakes a scoping review of existing evidence on tobacco use co-morbidities among young adults during the transition from high school post-graduation to contribute to a greater understanding of prevalence and predictors of tobacco use co-morbidities, co-use of other substances, and comorbid mental health problems.
Main Research Question
What is currently known about the prevalence and predictors of tobacco use co-morbidities among young adults transitioning from high school post-graduation?
Methodology
Scoping review
