Banning the advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco products slashes the odds of smoking by 20% and reduces the risk of starting the habit by an astonishing 37%, according to a comprehensive pooled analysis published in Tobacco Control. The study’s findings deliver compelling evidence that such bans significantly alter behavior, bolstering urgent calls for their global adoption and strict enforcement, the researchers conclude.
Two studies analyzed the impact of bans on current smoking over a period of less than 5 years, 5 over a period of 5–10 years, and 3 over a period of more than 10 years.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
Smoking uptake was evaluated for fewer than 5 years in 2 studies, and for more than 10 years in another 2. All 3 studies looking at smoking cessation evaluated the impact of bans over 5–10 years.
Pooled data analysis of all the study results showed that bans were associated with a 20% lower prevalence of smoking and a 37% lower risk of smoking uptake.
In 2019 alone, more than a billion people around the globe regularly smoked tobacco, and smoking caused nearly 8 million deaths, note the researchers.
To curb the toll taken by smoking, the World Health Organization set out guidance for countries on how to adopt comprehensive tobacco control policies in its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), explain the researchers.
Yet only 17 of the 182 parties involved have implemented comprehensive bans of all the listed types of tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, while 37 haven’t implemented any bans at all, they add.
To better understand the effects of tobacco advertising bans in today’s changing media landscape, researchers analyzed the latest research (up to April 2024) on how comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship affect smoking rates, initiation, and quitting. After removing duplicates, poorly designed studies, and ineligible entries, their analysis included 16 English-language studies, encompassing approximately half a million participants.
“Tobacco advertising and promotion increase awareness and receptivity towards cigarettes and provoke positive attitudes towards tobacco smoking. Youth and young adult populations are particularly susceptible to the negative influences of tobacco advertisement as exposure to tobacco marketing more than doubles their chances of smoking initiation,” explain the researchers.
“Our results suggest that [advertising, promotional, and sponsorship bans] can be effective in reducing smoking prevalence and the risk of smoking uptake…..Given the findings of this review, it is likely that comprehensive bans would have greater impacts on smoking behavior,” they write.
“The findings reinforce the need for countries to implement and enforce existing [tobacco advertising, promotional, and sponsorship] bans to reduce tobacco smoking and its consequences,” they concluded.
