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Improved public health: Smoke free legislation in Scotland

Summary of the impact

University of Aberdeen research had impact on public policy as it was instrumental in the introduction of legislation in Scotland to restrict smoking in public places. The implementation of the legislation has impacted on the health of the public and benefited the economy through reduced use of health services.

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) — passive smoking — had been estimated to cause more than 1,000 deaths per year in Scotland and significant morbidity. International evidence was used to model the health and economic impacts of potential legislation to eliminate smoking in public places in Scotland, under a range of scenarios. The net present value of all the benefits and costs over 30 years was demonstrated to be positive under all the scenarios examined, with a central estimate of +£4.6 billion (ranging from +£0.056 billion to +£7.4 billion).

The research results provided convincing evidence to support the passage of legislation. Following the implementation of smokefree public places in Scotland, evidence of the resulting health benefits have been accruing from 2008. These include significant reductions in admissions for acute coronary syndrome and for childhood asthma, reductions in complications of pregnancy (pre-term delivery and small for gestational age) and improvements in bar workers' health.

The claimed impact, as defined by REF guidance, therefore includes: public health and welfare have improved; public behaviour and the control of disease has changed.

Submitting Institution

University of Aberdeen

Unit of Assessment

Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

6: Influencing Tobacco Control Policy and Practice

Summary of the impact

Smoking is the single most important preventable cause of mortality and inequalities in health in the UK. Tobacco use causes over 100,000 deaths each year in the UK, with around 10,000 of these due to non-smokers' exposure to secondhand smoke. The total cost of smoking to society is estimated to be over £13 billion. The UoE Tobacco Control Research Group's (TCRG) research and knowledge exchange activities have significantly influenced tobacco control policy and practice in the UK (http://www.cphs.mvm.ed.ac.uk/groups/tcrg or http://tinyurl.com/nwxcpnh). More specifically, their research on smoking and non-smoking by young people has influenced smoking prevention and cessation policy at the national level in Scotland and England and at regional/local levels. Their evaluation studies of the national smoke-free legislation in Scotland and England provided important evidence on the legislation's positive public health impact, thereby undermining the case for repealing or diluting the legislation. Their research on reducing smoking in the home has influenced national policy and practice on this issue in Scotland including national mass media campaigns.

Submitting Institution

University of Edinburgh

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Effects of parental smoking on respiratory health among children

Summary of the impact

Systematic quantitative reviews of epidemiological evidence linking parental smoking with adverse respiratory health effects in childhood were published in 1997-1999 in Thorax. These meta-analyses were updated as a contribution to the US Surgeon-General's report on Secondhand Smoking, published in 2006, and the UK Royal College of Physicians' report on Passive Smoking and Children, published in 2010.

Over this period the adverse health effects of environmental tobacco smoke achieved prominence in public health policy, through campaigns for smoke-free workplaces (including pubs and restaurants) and publicity against parental smoking in the presence of children, both in cars and in the home.

Submitting Institution

St George's, University of London

Unit of Assessment

Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Giving up to save face? Investigating the impact of age-appearance facial morphing on women's smoking

Summary of the impact

Clark-Carter and colleagues' research on impact of facial morphing technology on smoking cessation has given national and international smoking cessation programmes a strong evidence base for the importance of focusing on the negative effects of smoking on personal appearance as well as on health. The work has impacted internationally; the developers of the software utilised in our studies (Aprilage Inc.) have used the research as evidence for effectiveness of their software, and stop smoking websites in the USA, Canada, and Ireland cite our research in full. In the UK, at least three Stop Smoking Services have incorporated age-appearance morphing programmes into their practice as a direct result of workshops on our research findings, and the Operation Smokestorm smoking prevention initiative (used by more than 100 schools across the UK) uses our research findings as part of the rationale for focusing on the appearance-damaging effects of smoking in the intervention.

Submitting Institution

Staffordshire University

Unit of Assessment

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology

Influencing international tobacco policy on standardised tobacco packaging

Summary of the impact

Ground-breaking experimental research at the University of Bristol assessing the effectiveness of standardised tobacco packaging legislation has been strongly influencing international tobacco policy and legislation since 2011. Work by scientists in the School of Experimental Psychology was the first to show, using direct, objective measures, that standardised tobacco packaging modifies relevant behaviours. Australia became the first country in the world to implement standardised packaging legislation in 2012 after reviewing the University of Bristol research in their High Court in response to legal challenges from the tobacco industry. That same year, the European Commission's update of the Tobacco Products Directive cited the same University of Bristol research to support the claim that standardised packaging would strengthen the effectiveness of graphic health warnings on tobacco products. The UK government has also used the University of Bristol research to inform the consultation on standardised packaging of tobacco products.

Submitting Institution

University of Bristol

Unit of Assessment

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Smoking cessation: treating the intractable smoker

Summary of the impact

There is no `magic bullet' for helping intractable smokers to quit. Rather, the story of this research is one of multiple studies that have built the knowledge base incrementally, allowing Professor of Clinical Psychology Peter Hajek and his team at the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine to produce a targeted, evidence-based model of a specialist treatment that has fed directly into the establishment of the NHS smoking cessation service (NHS-SSS) and national smoking cessation policy (including NICE guidance), and changed clinical practice. The NHS-SSS treats 800,000 smokers per year. The approach is influential globally and has now been used in treating several million smokers and preventing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.

Submitting Institution

Queen Mary, University of London

Unit of Assessment

Clinical Medicine

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology

Development and implementation of UK tobacco control policy

Summary of the impact

Research, policy development, evaluation and advocacy work at The University of Nottingham has achieved significant impact in helping to prevent the harm to health caused by smoking, which is the largest avoidable cause of death and disability, and of social inequalities in health, in the UK. This impact has been achieved through contributions in two areas of prevention: (1) conventional population- and individual-level interventions to prevent smoking uptake and promote smoking cessation; and (2) novel population-level measures to encourage substitution of smoked tobacco with alternative, low hazard nicotine products as a harm reduction strategy.

Submitting Institution

University of Nottingham

Unit of Assessment

Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

The Smoking Epidemic in England and Scotland: Shaping Public Health Policy and Planning

Summary of the impact

We have achieved significant and far reaching impact in the field of public health outcomes, policy and practice. For the first time, age/sex disaggregated estimates of smoking and ex-smoking prevalence were made available for approximately 7700 electoral wards in England and around 1000 postcode sectors for Scotland. The information has influenced national tobacco control policies (e.g. the ban of smoking in enclosed public spaces in England) and has impacted on national smoking-related health inequalities by targeting delivery of cessation services where they are most needed. Findings have also informed anti-smoking campaigns led by health authorities, charities and pressure groups.

Submitting Institution

University of Portsmouth

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Economics: Applied Economics

UOA02-06: Shaping International and UK Tobacco Policy and Practice

Summary of the impact

Oxford's research has helped reduce smoking prevalence and tobacco-related mortality worldwide. Our epidemiological studies have documented the varied ways in which smoking causes death in many countries, as well as the large benefits of smoking cessation, and have strongly influenced the WHO/Bloomberg 2008 MPOWER package, the key document guiding governmental tobacco policy worldwide. Oxford University researchers have also coordinated the systematic reviews that underpin effective evidence-based policies for encouraging smoking cessation both in the UK and worldwide, for example providing evidence supporting NICE guidance for smoking cessation.

Submitting Institution

University of Oxford

Unit of Assessment

Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

The evidence base for harms from environmental tobacco smoke

Summary of the impact

Epidemiological research at Queen Mary, commissioned by the Department of Health, demonstrated a clear and causal link between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and both ischaemic heart disease and lung cancer. The evidence contributed significantly to public and political debates on whether to ban smoking in public places. It informed the rebuttal of heavy tobacco industry lobbying and had a pivotal influence on changes in the law in Scotland (2006), England and Wales (2007), and Northern Ireland (2007), as well as in many countries outside UK, which led to highly significant reductions in environmental pollution from secondhand smoke. Many health benefits were subsequently attributed to the ban, notably a 17% reduction in incidence of acute myocardial infarction.

Submitting Institution

Queen Mary, University of London

Unit of Assessment

Clinical Medicine

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

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