Increasing resource allocation and research into tobacco control activities: a comprehensive approach including primary prevention, treatment and brief intervention.
The range of tobacco control activities should be viewed as essential parts of a complex multi-component puzzle. Intervention strategies designed to address tobacco control should be comprehensive and include both primary and secondary prevention activities and be multi-faceted and capable of bringing about change at both the individual and broader social and cultural levels. In this paper I argue for a mutually inclusive framework in which the various components contribute in important and different ways. I examine the prevalence of smoking and identify the high risk groups, then I examine the range of available strategies and present the evidence for their success. I discuss the primary prevention approaches such as warning labels, taxes, price increases, workplace bans, education in schools, mass media and self-help materials, as well as brief interventions and treatment strategies which are conducted at the worksite, general practice and specialized cessation clinics. The areas for future research are delineated for increased resource allocation and include: the best ways to disseminate brief interventions to smokers, methods to motivate smokers; training of health professionals to deliver brief interventions; enhancing quitting and access to existing treatment resources among specific disadvantaged minority groups, e.g. migrants, unemployed youth, the effect on smoking prevalence of warning labels on cigarette packets and price rises on cigarettes.
Richmond
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National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, and School of Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, PO Box 1, Kensington, NSW, 2033, Australia.