Association Between Point-of-Sale Advertising Bans and Cigarette Smoking

Objectives: This study provides global evidence on the association between cigarette point-of-sale (POS) advertising bans and adult cigarette smoking during 2007-2014.

Methods: Data on POS advertising bans, cigarette prices, tobacco control environment, and countries’ economic conditions came from the WHO MPOWER datasets and the World Bank database. Data on annual smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption were from Euromonitor International tobacco country reports. Country and year identifiers were used to link the datasets. Fractional logit regression and ordinary least squares methods were used to examine the associations between POS advertising bans and smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption. Analyses controlled for country-level GDP per capita, cigarette prices, percentages of population aged 15-64 and 65 and over, tobacco control environment, year indicators, and country fixed-effects.

Results: POS advertising bans were associated with a 0.7 percentage point decrease in adult smoking prevalence and significantly associated with reduced cigarette consumption. Countries with POS advertising bans decreased by 128-154 sticks of cigarettes in per capita consumption per year compared to countries without such bans.

Conclusions: Restricting cigarette advertising in the retail environment may reduce adult cigarette smoking.