Tobacco, supervision and availability – an interview study and a systematic literature review regarding availability restriction methods

2011-09-22

In a report published by the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, an interview study was conducted among 26 municipalities in Sweden. The results of the interview study present the practical tobacco supervision work in each municipality.

The reporting provides no answers as to what the general supervision work looks like in Sweden, but indicates a broad spread of the work for the 26 municipalities included. Among other things, the results show that the practical supervision work differs a great deal between the municipalities in terms of the level of supervision fees, how collaboration between municipalities and other cooperative parties takes place and the cooperation within each municipality. The majority of municipalities had a shared view regarding the lack of effective supervision methods.

The report also presents the results from a systematic literature review. The literature review covers the effect of various interventions with the aim of reducing sales of tobacco by business operators to minors. The results show that a broad endeavour by society combined with either training efforts or the use of sanctions, both directed at business operators, are effective interventions for reducing tobacco sales to minors.

Based on the results of the interview study and the systematic literature review, 21 proposed measures could be identified. The proposed measures are divided into three different levels: multicomponent efforts, preventive supervision and immediate supervision. Examples of measures include combining various tobacco-prevention efforts with supervision, working out a common structure for supervision plans and introducing test purchasing as a supervision method.