Tobacco Control Scale website: a new tool for tobacco control advocates and researchers
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1
Institut Català d'Oncologia, Tobacco Control Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control, Spain
2
Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, Cancer Prevention and Control Group, Spain
3
Association of European Cancer Leagues, Belgium
4
Cancer Society of Finland, Finland
5
Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya, Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain
6
University of Barcelona, Departament of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, Campus Bellvitge, Spain
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A586
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ABSTRACT
Background:
The Tobacco Control Scale (TCS) was first published in
2006 to monitor the implementation of tobacco control policies at country-level
in Europe and, since then, every three years a new report (2007, 2010, 2013 and
2016) has been published. Our objective was to develop a website to gather and structure the
information included in the TCS reports, to provide friendly dynamic graphics
for professionals and the public, as well as, to compile other documents and
publications derived from the scale.
Methods:
The original TCS reports were used to
bring together all the information and tables included in order to be able to
access to all the information from one site. The researchers systematically reviewed
all published articles that include the TCS, as main dependent or independent
variable and other materials (seminars, photos, etc.) related to the scale. The
researchers also generated dynamic graphics for visitors to explore how their
countries' scores fluctuate across years and compare with other European
countries. The website has been adapted to mobile devices.
Results:
The website (www.tobaccocontrolscale.org) was launched at the
7th ECTOH in March 2017 in Portugal. It has had 1,556 visits (July
2017): 55.9% direct, 21% referral, 12.9% social (55.7% via Twitter) and 10.2%
others; the 73% have been new and 27% returning visitors. By country, 19.7%
visitors were from Germany, 8.4% from Switzerland, 8.4% from Spain and 8.2%
from the UK. The 17.5% have accessed to the website using either a mobile phone
or a tablet.
Conclusions:
The website has been well received by the tobacco
control community with almost 1,600 visits from all over the world; however,
more diffusion has to be made to stimulate its use and reach a larger audience
in the future that could probably extend the use of the scale for tobacco
control purposes.