Tobacco retail and publicity at points of sale (PoS) around schools in three major cities in Mexico (2014-2016)

Background Mexico has regulation addressing advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products. Social environment and availability must be considered to actualize tobacco control policies targeting young people. We aimed to examine changes on tobacco retail and publicity around secondary schools in Mexico. Methods 57 secondary schools where randomly selected by strata across three major cities in Mexico (Mexico City -CDMX-, Guadalajara and Monterrey) on 2014; urban marginalization and registered PoS according to the NAIC System were used. Tobacco retail, external and internal publicity were evaluated in each PoS within a ratio of 300 meters around schools and standardized questionnaires were fulfilled by trained observers; this exercise was repeated on 2016. Paired sample T test and tests on the equality of proportions were executed. This study was funded by the National Institute of Health, University of South Carolina through CODICE collaboration. Results Total number of PoS reduced from 796 (Density: 2816.5/km 2 ) in 2014 to 597 (Density: 2112.3/km 2 ) in 2016 (p< 0.05), no reduction was found in Monterrey. Street vendors were found almost exclusively in CDMX. Sales of single cigarettes reduced only in CDMX (71.4% to 57.1%; p< 0.05) and we were able to detect contraband sales in less than 5% of stores. Sale of flavored capsules was found in more than half of stores (2016). External publicity: was found in less than 2% of stores in both measurements. Internal publicity: announcements at the high of children eyes reduced in Monterrey (90.7% to 30.8%; p< 0.05), promotions were found in less than 4% of stores and counter-publicity augmented in Guadalajara from 0.4% to 14.0% (p< 0.05); in contrast, display of cigarettes augmented in CDMX from 22.3% to 34.2%; (p< 0.05). Conclusions Tobacco retail remain present around secondary schools and control policies should target display of tobacco cigarettes and reinforce control of contraband and single cigarettes sales