Summary of Findings National Tobacco Campaign - Evaluation Report Volume II

The second evaluation volume was prepared by the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer under the guidance of the Research and Evaluation sub-committee of the National Expert Advisory Committee on Tobacco (NEACT). It was launched by Dr Michael Wooldridge (Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care) on World No Tobacco Day, 31 May, 2000.

Evaluation Volume 2 tracks the effects of phases two and three of the campaign through to the end of 1998. It also includes an economic evaluation of the 1997 activity. Specifically, it includes the following chapters:

i. Introduction and Overview

    1. Background to the Campaign
    2. Changes associated with the National Tobacco Campaign: Results of the Second Follow-up survey
    3. Impact of the National Tobacco Campaign: Comparison between Adolescent and Adult surveys
    4. Tracking the National Tobacco Campaign: Phase Two
    5. Price discounting of cigarettes during the National Tobacco Campaign
    6. Monitoring of Print Media news coverage
    7. Economic Evaluation of the National Tobacco Campaign
The National Tobacco Campaign commenced in 1997 and is targeted primarily at 18-40 year old smokers. It is probably the most comprehensively evaluated national health promotion campaign mounted in Australia to date. This summary highlights the continued effectiveness of the strategy and addresses issues concerning potential wear-out of the advertising.

Phase One of the mass-media led campaign was characterised by three health effect advertisements (Artery, Lung, Tumour) which were aired between June and December 1997. The National Tobacco Campaign Evaluation Report Volume 1, launched in May 1999, focussed on the results to the end of the first phase.

The 1998 activity included two phases of television and radio jointly funded by the Commonwealth, and State and Territory Quit campaigns between May and October 1998. The 1998 campaign was implemented at a lower level of intensity than the 1997 campaign particularly in respect of paid television advertising.

Phases 2 and 3 of the campaign continued with strategies that had been shown to be successful from the outset and included additional advertising material that contained themes consistent with those from the first phase.

In Phase 2, a new health effect about a stroke (Brain) and an advertisement modelling the behaviour of calling the Quitline (Call for help), were introduced. Call for help was introduced to build on the success of displaying the Quitline number at the bottom of each advertisement in Phase 1. The advertisements run in Phases 2 and 3 of media included Brain, Call for help and Artery.

Volume II Highlights

    • Overall the results of the evaluation of phases 2 and 3 show that recognition of the campaign remained high and the campaign continued to be perceived as "relevant", "believable", and "thought-provoking".
    • The Call for help execution appeared to have a potent modelling effect indicated by the higher number of calls to the Quitline when compared with Phase 1 taking into account the amount of advertising in each phase.
    • The significant reduction in overall prevalence reported to the end of phase 1 (November-December 1997) was sustained through the following year, suggesting that the initial response was not a temporary or chance effect. Specifically, an overall reduction of about 1.8% in the estimated adult prevalence of smoking has been observed over the 18 months since the campaign was launched.
    • However, prevalence did not continue to decrease at the same rate as suggested in the first evaluation and there was no further movement of smokers along the quitting continuum upon which the campaign was based.
    • Among 14-17 year olds there was almost universal recognition of the campaign eighteen months after the campaign began, and among this sample, young people found the campaign at least as relevant as their adult counterparts. Hence, although the data on teenagersŐ response to the campaign is not strong enough to claim any impact on reducing teenage smoking prevalence, these findings are encouraging.
    • The advent of over-the-counter sales of nicotine replacement therapy in September 1997 and associated product advertising thereafter presumably assisted in the achievement of campaign goals.
    • An economic evaluation estimated that the first six months of the campaign resulted in the potential prevention of 922 premature deaths and the achievement of an additional 3338 person years of life up to the age of 75. In terms of costs saved it was expected to have averted $24 million in health expenditure (from a total of $ 9 million expended by the States and Commonwealth). Therefore, it was concluded that the National Tobacco Campaign is excellent value for money and confirms the benefits of continuing with the strategy.
    • The relationship between increasing the price of cigarettes and reduced consumption at a population level is now well documented. There was a slight upward trend in prices but increased price was judged to be sufficient to explain only a small fraction of the reduction in smoking estimated from the population surveys.
    • Therefore, the Campaign has demonstrated important health and economic benefits. However, there are signs of a slowing down of the key indicators of impact on smoking behaviour, and this is not surprising given the reduced activity in Phase 2.

Page currency, Latest update: 14 February, 2006