Letters
Ethics
Volume 200 - Issue 6

The association between tobacco plain packaging and Quitline calls

Authors:  Jane M Young, David Currow and Sally Dunlop

Med J Aust 2014; 200 (6): 314-315. || doi: 10.5694/mja14.00191
Published online: 7 April 2014
Government should take the lead in trialling and evaluating new strategies for tackling disease prevention
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In reply: We thank Magnusson for placing our study1 in the broader context of government involvement in public health initiatives. A key point that deserves further exploration is the role of governments around the world when novel legislative initiatives are introduced to improve the health of the population. Each government that introduces novel laws or regulations must also ensure that it has adequate resources to measure the impact of these measures. If this is not done, there is the risk of failing to fully quantify the impact of the new initiatives.

The three studies published to date that evaluate aspects of the impact of introducing plain tobacco packaging were not funded by the jurisdiction that introduced the legislation.1-3 It is notable that our study would not have been possible without ongoing investment in long-term longitudinal data collection that enabled the comparisons between different initiatives (the introduction of graphic health warnings and the introduction of plain packaging) to be undertaken.

Authors

  • Jane M Young1
  • David Currow2
  • Sally Dunlop2
  • 1. Cancer Epidemiology and Services Research (CESR), Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.
  • 2. Cancer Institute NSW, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: jyoung@email.cs.nsw.gov.au

Competing interests

No relevant disclosures.

References

View this article on Wiley Online Library