Tobacco taxation has long played an important part in the politics of smoking in Canada. Its synergy with other tobacco control policies, newspaper coverage of tobacco issues is, however, not well understood. The purpose of this paper is thus to examine over time the relative influence of tax-induced price changes in cigarettes, tobacco regulation, newspaper coverage of tobacco issues, and personal factors on Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec women and men smoking behaviour. A repeated cross-section design was used. Data on smoking behaviour and other personal factors of individuals, aged 15 years and over, were derived from eight national surveys conducted from 1978 to 1995. Data on prices of cigarettes, tobacco taxation, other legislative measures taken at the federal, provincial and municipal levels were collected through a review of official documents. Newspapers CD-ROM and indexes were used to collect data on newspapers articles published by eight main newspapers from 1978 to 1995. Differences were observed between the three provinces in terms of cigarette prices, comprehensiveness and strength of legislative measures and newspaper coverage of tobacco issues. Multiple regression techniques were used to examine the effect of price and other factors on the decision to be a smoker and the amount of cigarettes smoked. The paucity of monitoring data on tobacco control activity, the effectiveness of tobacco control policies with men and women and the influence of media coverage of tobacco issues will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: The participants will be able to discuss the effectiveness of tobacco control policies. They will be able to identify future intervention avenues
Keywords: Tobacco Control, Media
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.