General practitioners' perceptions of population based bowel screening and their influence on practice: a qualitative study.

Background: Although largely preventable, Australia has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world. General Practitioners (GPs) have an important role to play in prevention and early detection of bowel cancer, however in Australia this is yet to be optimised and participation remains low. This study sought to understand how GPs' perceptions of bowel screening influence their attitudes to, and promotion of the faecal occult blood test (FOBT), to identify opportunities to enhance their role.

Australia's plain tobacco packs: anticipated and actual responses among adolescents and young adults 2010-2013.

Background: In December 2012, Australia introduced world-first legislation mandating plain packaging for all tobacco products. To date, there is very little evidence on youth responses to the changed packs.

Aim: To assess attitudes towards, and responses to, tobacco plain packs preimplementation and postimplementation.

Exposure to Internet-Based Tobacco Advertising and Branding: Results From Population Surveys of Australian Youth 2010-2013.

Background: Since legislation prohibiting tobacco advertising in traditional media, online communication platforms and social media have become one of the few avenues for the tobacco industry to promote its products to Australians. Little is currently known about the exposure of young people to these new media promotions.

Objective: To measure exposure to Internet-based tobacco advertising and branding among Australian youth, identify common formats of branding encountered, and examine the association between exposure and smoking susceptibility.

Benefit Cost Analysis of Three Skin Cancer Public Education Mass-Media Campaigns Implemented in New South Wales, Australia.

Public education mass media campaigns are an important intervention for influencing behaviour modifications. However, evidence on the effectiveness of such campaigns to encourage the population to reduce sun exposure is limited. This study investigates the benefits and costs of three skin cancer campaigns implemented in New South Wales from 2006-2013.

Estimating the economic costs of skin cancer in New South Wales, Australia.

Background: Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. The increased incidence of skin cancer, combined with limited health care resources and tight budgetary conditions, has increased the importance of understanding the economic impact of skin cancer. This research estimates the economic cost of skin cancer in the Australian state of New South Wales.

Smoking-attributable cancer mortality in NSW, Australia, 1972-2008.

Aim: To estimate the impact of smoking-attributable cancer mortality on trends in cancer mortality in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, between 1972 and 2008.

Study Type: The study is a retrospective analysis of cancer mortality in NSW using NSW Central Cancer Registry data.

Methods: Smoking-attributable cancer deaths were estimated using the smoking impact ratio method, which provides an indirect estimate of exposure to tobacco in the NSW population using lung cancer mortality.

Exposure to the 'Dark Side of Tanning' skin cancer prevention mass media campaign and its association with tanning attitudes in New South Wales, Australia.

Melanoma is the most common cancer among 15- to 29-year-olds in Australia, with rates increasing with age. The 'Dark Side of Tanning' (DSOT) mass media campaign was developed in 2007 to influence attitudes related to tanning. This study aimed to assess recall and impact of the DSOT campaign.

Impact of Australia's introduction of tobacco plain packs on adult smokers' pack-related perceptions and responses: results from a continuous tracking survey.

Objectives: To investigate the impact of Australia's plain tobacco packaging policy on two stated purposes of the legislation--increasing the impact of health warnings and decreasing the promotional appeal of packaging--among adult smokers.

Design: Serial cross-sectional study with weekly telephone surveys (April 2006-May 2013). Interrupted time-series analyses using ARIMA modelling and linear regression models were used to investigate intervention effects.

Out of Sight and Out of Mind? Evaluating the Impact of Point-of-Sale Tobacco Display Bans on Smoking-Related Beliefs and Behaviors in a Sample of Australian Adolescents and Young Adults.

Introduction: The Australian states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland implemented bans on tobacco pack displays at point-of-sale (PoS) in July 2010 and November 2011, respectively. This study evaluated the medium-term impact of the bans on youth.

Methods: Data were drawn from the Tobacco Promotion Impact Study, a repeated cross-sectional survey of youth (12-24 years) in NSW and Queensland conducted yearly 2010-2012 (n = 6,014).

Knowledge and beliefs about alcohol consumption, longer-term health risks, and the link with cancer in a sample of Australian adults.

Aim: This study explores knowledge and beliefs about longer-term health risks related to alcohol consumption among Australian adults.

Methods: Data were drawn from the 2009 Cancer Institute NSW Lifestyle and Cancer Survey, a telephone survey of adults in NSW. Participants (n=1255) were asked about their alcohol consumption, knowledge of the Australian guidelines (revised in 2009), and personal perceptions and beliefs about longer-term health risks from alcohol consumption.

When your smoking is not just about you: antismoking advertising, interpersonal pressure, and quitting outcomes.

The authors investigated the potential for antismoking advertising to generate interpersonal pressure on smokers to quit using the Cancer Institute NSW's Tobacco Tracking Survey, a telephone tracking survey of adult smokers conducted throughout the year with approximately 50 interviews per week (N = 5,448). The survey includes questions relating to recently broadcast antismoking advertisements, including whether smokers have received pressure from family and friends as a result of their seeing the advertisements. The authors conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses to predict: (a) receiving ad-stimulated interpersonal pressure; and (b) quitting outcomes.

Televised antismoking advertising: effects of level and duration of exposure.

Objectives: We assessed the effects of levels and duration of exposure to televised antismoking advertising on cognitive and behavioral changes.

Methods: We used data from a serial cross-sectional telephone survey with weekly interviews of adult smokers and recent quitters in New South Wales, Australia (n = 13,301), between April 2005 and December 2010. We merged survey data with commercial TV ratings data to estimate individuals' exposure to antismoking advertising.

The natural history of antismoking advertising recall: the influence of broadcasting parameters, emotional intensity and executional features.

Background: The necessary first steps for televised media campaign effects are population exposure and recall. To maximise the impact of campaign funding, it is critical to identify modifiable factors that increase the efficiency of an advertisement reaching the target audience and of their recalling that advertisement.

Methods: Data come from a serial cross-sectional telephone survey with weekly interviews of adult smokers and recent quitters from the state of New South Wales, Australia, collected between April 2005 and December 2010 (total n=13 301).

Tobacco promotion 'below-the-line': exposure among adolescents and young adults in NSW, Australia.

Background: Exposure to tobacco advertising and promotion increases the likelihood of smoking amongst young people. While there is a universal ban on traditional or ‘above-the-line’ advertising in Australia, the types and extent of exposure of young people to ‘below-the-line’ tobacco advertising and promotion is largely unknown. In this study we aim to identify levels of exposure of New South Wales (NSW) adolescents and young adults to tobacco promotion at the point-of-sale (PoS), on the internet, in entertainment media and at venues such as events or festivals and pubs, clubs, nightclubs, or bars; and to identify those most at risk of exposure.

Tobacco in the news: associations between news coverage, news recall and smoking-related outcomes in a sample of Australian smokers and recent quitters.

This paper aims to track smokers' and recent quitters' recall of tobacco news, compare patterns of recall with patterns of news coverage and assess associations between news recall and smoking-related cognitions and behaviours, by using a quantitative analysis. The Cancer Institute New South Wales (NSW)'s Tobacco Tracking Survey, a continuous tracking telephone survey of adult smokers and recent quitters, was used to monitor recall of tobacco news and smoking-related cognitions and behaviours from January to September 2010 (approximately 50 interviews per week; n = 1952). Thirty per cent of respondents reported semi-prompted recall of tobacco news with patterns of recall closely following peaks in news coverage.

Impact of the 2010 tobacco tax increase in Australia on short-term smoking cessation: a continuous tracking survey.

Objective: To use population-level data to monitor the impact on smoking cessation activity of the April 2010 Australian tobacco tax increase.

Design And Setting: The Cancer Institute NSW [New South Wales] Tobacco Tracking Survey (CITTS) is a continuous tracking telephone survey conducting about 50 interviews per week. Data from February to September in 2009 and 2010 were analysed (ie, data on people who quit smoking in the 3 months before and 5 months after the tax increase in 2010 were compared, and quitting activity over the same period in 2009 was also analysed).

Use and perceived helpfulness of smoking cessation methods: results from a population survey of recent quitters.

Background: Increasing rates of smoking cessation is one of the most effective measures available to improve population health. To advance the goal of increasing successful cessation at the population level, it is imperative that we understand more about smokers' use of cessation methods, as well as the helpfulness of those methods in real-world experiences of quitting. In this survey of recent quitters, we simultaneously examined rates of use and perceived helpfulness of various cessation methods.

Australian smokers' and recent quitters' responses to the increasing price of cigarettes in the context of a tobacco tax increase.

Aims: To track smokers' responses to the increasing price of cigarettes after a tax increase, and assess socio-demographic differences in responses.

Design: The Cancer Institute NSW's Tobacco Tracking Survey (CITTS) is a continuous tracking telephone survey. Weekly data were collected between May and September 2010.

Squeezing new life out of an old Sponge: how to modernise an anti-smoking media campaign to capture a new market.

Objectives: The iconic Sponge anti-smoking television advertisement was first made in Sydney, Australia, in 1979. In 2007, it was re-made for a new generation of smokers. This paper examines the impact of the re-made Sponge advertisement.

The case for recycling and adapting anti-tobacco mass media campaigns.

Effective mass media campaigns are hard to come by. A delicate blend of art and science is required to ensure content is technically accurate as well as being creatively engaging for the target audience. However, the most expensive component of a media campaign is not its development but its placement at levels that allow smokers to see, engage and respond to its content.

Outcomes from a mass media campaign to promote cervical screening in NSW, Australia.

Background: Despite the decline in the incidence of cervical cancer in Australia as a result of population screening, a substantial proportion of women in NSW screen less regularly than the recommended two-yearly interval or do not screen. With higher rates of cervical cancer in unscreened and underscreened women, and despite the introduction of the human papillomavirus vaccine, there remains a need to continue to remind women to screen. The mass media has been shown to be effective at improving participation in cervical screening.

Smokers respond to anti-tobacco mass media campaigns in NSW by calling the Quitline.

Objective: One aim of the anti-tobacco mass media campaigns in NSW is to increase the numbers of smokers calling the Quitline to seek assistance to quit.

Methods: Investigation of the relationship between the weight of television advertising (Target Audience Rating Points: TARPs) and number of calls to the Quitline.

Results: There is a high correlation between weekly Quitline calls and TARPs.