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= The International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project = The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project) is a research project conducting international longitudinal cohort survey s of tobacco use to evaluate the psychosocial and behavioural effects of national-level tobacco control policies. The ITC Project is the first international research program for the systematic evaluation of key policies (e.g., health warnings, smoke-free laws, tax/price policies, marketing bans, illicit trade, cessation policies) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) at the population level. The ITC Project has established a research platform to guide strong, evidence-based implementation of FCTC policies to:


 * Evaluate FCTC policies at the level of the individual smoker
 * Identify the determinants of effective tobacco control policies
 * Disseminate research findings to the global tobacco control community, including researchers, policy makers, and advocates

The ITC Project is conducting longitudinal cohort surveys in 31 countries inhabited by over 50% of the world’s population, over 60% of the world’s smokers, and over 70% of the world’s tobacco users. The ITC Project research team is led by ITC Project Founder and Chief Principal Investigator Dr. Geoffrey T. Fong at the University of Waterloo in Canada. The ITC Project research team includes over 150 researchers in the 31 countries, including world-leading experts across multiple disciplines. ITC Surveys are designed to address critical issues in global tobacco control such as:


 * "Are pictorial warnings more effective than text-only warnings?"


 * "Do restrictions on advertising lead to sufficient reductions in exposure to industry marketing or must there be a total ban?"
 * "Will smoke-free laws also encourage cessation?"
 * "Do discount brands and cheaper sources lower the effectiveness of tobacco taxes?"
 * "How does effectiveness of tobacco control policies vary by income level-within countries and across countries?"

History
In 2002, Prof. Geoffrey T. Fong and researchers in Canada (University of Waterloo) formed a collaboration with an international team of researchers in Australia (The Cancer Council of Victoria), the United Kingdom (University of Strathclyde), and the United States (Roswell Park Cancer Institute and University of Illinois at Chicago) to create the ITC Four Country Project. The survey began as a set of four parallel random-digit dialed (RDD) telephone surveys of representative samples of adult smokers in four countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is the first international treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO. It was adopted by the World Health Assembly on 21 May 2003 and entered into force on 27 February 2005. The FCTC policies include more prominent warning labels (including graphic images), comprehensive smoke-free laws, restrictions or bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship, higher taxes on tobacco products, removal of potentially deceptive labelling (e.g., "light" and "mild" and packaging design that lead consumers to the misperception that certain brands may be less harmful), promotion of cessation, public education on the harms of tobacco, reduction of illicit trade, reduction of youth access, and product regulation. Currently, The ITC Project’s overall objective is to measure the psychosocial and behavioral impact of key national level policies of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Countries involved with the ITC Project:

Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, China (Mainland), England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Ireland, Scotland, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Spain, Thailand, United Arab Emirates-Abu Dhabi, Uruguay, United States, Vietnam, and Zambia.

Survey Methods
The ITC Project uses multi-wave cohort surveys to examine the effectiveness of various tobacco control policies. Surveys analyze changes in national-level tobacco policies that are compliant with the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The ITC Project team conducts longitudinal cohort surveys and capitalizes on natural experiments to evaluate the impact of these policies over time.

All ITC surveys are developed using the same conceptual framework and methods, and the survey questions, which include more than 150 questions directly relating to policy impact, are designed to be identical or functionally equivalent across all ITC countries in order to allow strong cross-country comparisons.

The ITC Project employs a variety of survey methodologies, including Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI), Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI), Random Digit Dialed Telephone Surveys, and face-to-face Surveys, occasionally with Self-Administered Paper or Online Surveys.

Findings
A key objective of the ITC Project is to promote strong evidence-based policies under the FCTC through rapid translation of knowledge to the global tobacco control community. The ITC Project knowledge translation program reaches researchers, policymakers, and advocacy groups through scientific journal papers, presentations at scientific meetings, results dissemination workshops, country-specific National Reports, FCTC policy-specific reports, cross-country comparison reports, and high-profile media coverage of project findings.