Project Details

The IGIs-SHS project addresses the question of how tobacco control policies, as an example of a universal public health intervention, affect social inequalities in tobacco smoke exposure, particularly among children. The World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is the first global public health treaty. To protect the population from the health risks of exposure to tobacco smoke, Article 8 of the FCTC regulates protection from passive smoking in enclosed public places. Such universal intervention strategies, which are not specifically targeted at certain population groups, can unintentionally miss socially disadvantaged groups and reinforce existing social inequalities. This effect is also known as "intervention-generated inequalities", or IGIs for short. The concept of IGIs is currently being used to discuss which tobacco control policy prevention measures unintentionally reinforce social inequalities in smoking behaviour and exposure to tobacco smoke. Social inequalities in the smoking behaviour of parents and thus in the tobacco smoke exposure of children in private rooms have already been extensively investigated. The effects of non-smoker protection legislation on children's exposure to tobacco smoke in private rooms have been analysed in several countries in recent years. A new question is whether social inequalities in tobacco smoke exposure are systematically increased. As part of the project, data from our own studies are analysed, systematic reviews are produced (equity-focused systematic review) and concepts are further developed.