Open Evidence, in consortium with London School of Economics, BDI Research and the Catalan Institute of Oncology, will conduct the study “Consumer preference and perception of specific categories of tobacco and related products” for the European Commission (DG Sante). The study wants to analyse the consumer preferences and perceptions of consumers on 5 tobacco product categories, namely: novel tobacco products, small cigarillos, slim cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and waterpipe tobacco.
The study will summarise the information available to date and collect quantitative and qualitative primary data to provide a holistic view of those products and their consumers. The study will use a mixed methods approach, where different methods/instruments and different sources will be triangulated to address the objectives and scope. The study will include an analysis and review of data, online survey, focus groups and literature reviews. The output of this research will feed the 2021 Report on the Application of the Tobacco Directive.
On 2015, Open Evidence already conducted a project that studied the effectiveness of new labelling and packaging for tobacco products. The study used data from a multi-country Randomized Control Trial to analyse the effect of anti-tobacco pictorial warnings on consumer’s emotions and behaviour. The findings suggested that eliciting shame, anger or distress proves to be more effective in reducing smoking than fear and disgust. (Follow this link to access the publication).
Tobacco consumption is the single largest avoidable health risk, and the most significant cause of premature death in the EU (EC, 2018). Despite considerable progress made in recent years, the number of smokers in the EU is still high – 26% of the overall population and 29% of young Europeans aged 15-24 smoke. On a global level, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year. More than 6 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 890,000 are the result of passive smoking forced on non-smokers.
