Are Australia’s stringent tobacco control measures resulting in increased consumer demand for illicit tobacco? | I-CARE: Improving outcomes for older Australians accessing the transition care programme

Dr Cheneal Puljevic: Are Australia’s stringent tobacco control measures resulting in increased consumer demand for illicit tobacco? 

Australia’s National Preventive Health Strategy includes a goal of ≤5% smoking prevalence by 2030. To achieve this goal, innovative “tobacco endgame” policies (e.g., large tax increases) are needed. However, as tobacco becomes harder to access and afford, Australians may seek cheaper, illegal forms of tobacco (“illicit tobacco”). So will Australia’s increasingly stringent tobacco control measures result in an increase in illicit tobacco use, and could illicit tobacco be undermining Australia’s attempts to achieve a tobacco endgame?

Dr Natasha Reid: I-CARE: Improving outcomes for older Australians accessing the transition care programme

Dr Natasha Reid is a research fellow and clinical epidemiologist at the Centre for Health Services Research, working with Prof. Hubbard and the Ageing and Geriatric Research Unit. Natasha will present her proposal surrounding the upcoming MRFF EMCR research grant opportunity (Stream 1). Her proposal centres around the Transition Care Programme for older adults who are discharged from the hospital and need multidisciplinary team care. Natasha will welcome your opinions to strengthen her proposal.