The so-called "Spanish model" - Tobacco industry strategies and its impact in Europe and Latin America

Background To demonstrate the tobacco industry rationale behind the "Spanish model" on non-smokers' protection in hospitality venues and the impact it had on some European and Latin American countries between 2006 and 2011. Methods Tobacco industry documents research triangulated against news and media reports. Results As an alternative to the successful implementation of 100% smoke-free policies, several European and Latin American countries introduced partial smoking bans based on the so-called "Spanish model", a legal framework widely advocated by parts of the hospitality industry with striking similarities to "accommodation programmes" promoted by the tobacco industry in the late 1990s. These developments started with the implementation of the Spanish tobacco control law (Ley 28/2005) in 2006 and have increased since then. Conclusion The Spanish experience demonstrates that partial smoking bans often resemble tobacco industry strategies and are used to spread a failed approach on international level. Researchers, advocates and policy makers should be aware of this ineffective policy

Validation of the "SmoCess-GP" instrument - a short patient questionnaire for assessing the smoking cessation activities of general practitioners: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We developed an instrument assessing the extent of smoking cessation activities by general practitioners (GPs) within the Cologne Smoking Study (CoSmoS). The objective of the present study was to examine further psychometric quality of the "SmoCess-GP" instrument (<b>Smo</b>king <b>Cess</b>ation by <b>G</b>eneral <b>P</b>ractitioners).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>127 current smokers who had participated in the Cologne Smoking Study (CoSmoS) were included in our analyses. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the model fit and to retest the single-factor structure of the instrument using the Mplus software. Further construct validity was tested with bivariate analysis using an instrument which measures patients' trust in physicians.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CFA supported the unidimensional structure of the instrument. The factor loadings exceed the threshold of ≥ 0.50. All indicator reliabilities were higher than 0.30. The composite reliability was 0.86 and the average variance extracted (AVE) resulted in a value of 0.50. The calculation of global fit indices identified a CFI value of 1.00 and for TLI a value of 1.02. The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) indicates that 0% of the information is not accounted for by the model. The chi-square value was χ²_{df = 6}= 4.63 (p = 0.59). Analysis of discriminant validity resulted in a non-significiant correlation of r = 0.092 (p = 0.350).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Results indicate preliminary evidence for the construct validity of the "SmoCess-GP" instrument which therefore appears to be a promising tool for analyzing the extent of smoking cessation advice offered by GPs from the patients' perspective. Future research should examine the psychometric properties in a population based sample, further improvements of the instrument and should apply other methods of validation.</p