title: Tobacco control campaign in Uruguay: a population-based trend analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2005, Uruguay initiated a series of comprehensive anti-smoking measures. We aimed to assess the effect of Uruguay's anti-tobacco campaign.
  
  
  METHODS
  We did a population-based trend analysis, using neighbouring Argentina, which has not instituted such extensive anti-tobacco measures, as a control. We assessed three key endpoints in both countries: per-person consumption of cigarettes, as measured by tax records; the prevalence of tobacco use in adolescents, as measured by school-based surveys; and the prevalence of tobacco use in adults, as measured by nationwide household-based surveys.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During 2005-11, per-person consumption of cigarettes in Uruguay decreased by 4·3% per year (95% CI 2·4 to 6·2), whereas per-person consumption in Argentina increased by 0·6% per year (-1·2 to 2·5; p=0·002 for difference in trends). During 2003-09, the 30-day prevalence of tobacco use in Uruguayan students aged 13 years, 15 years, and 17 years decreased by an estimated 8·0% per year (4·5 to 11·6), compared with a decrease of 2·5% annually (0·5 to 4·5) in Argentinian students during 2001-09 (p=0·02 for difference in trends). From 2005 to 2011, the prevalence of current tobacco use in Uruguay decreased annually by an estimated 3·3% (2·4 to 4·1), compared with an annual decrease in Argentina of 1·7% (0·8 to 2·6; p=0·02 for difference in trends).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Uruguay's comprehensive tobacco-control campaign has been associated with a substantial, unprecedented decrease in tobacco use. Decreases in tobacco use in other low-income and middle-income countries of the magnitude seen in Uruguay would have a substantial effect on the future global burden of tobacco-related diseases.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  J William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the US Department of State.
authors.affiliation: National Programme for Tobacco Control, Ministry of Public Health, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Winston
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Abascal
authors.forename: Elba
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Esteves
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Goja
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: González Mora
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lorenzo
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sica
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Triunfo
authors.forename: Jeffrey E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D015438:Health Behavior; D006291:Health Policy; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D014583:Uruguay / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult