Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment

A study released earlier this year has shown a comprehensive smoke-free prison policy can substantially reduce second-hand smoke.

Kathleen Boyd and Nicola McMeekin undertook the economic analysis, including a costconsequence, costutility analyses, demonstrating cost-effectiveness in the long term. This ground-breaking multidisciplinary and complex evaluation will contribute to the international literature and public health understanding of tackling smoking in prisons for many years to come.

Prisons previously had a partial exemption from the UK’s 2006/7 indoor smoking bans, and this is the first study internationally to analyse the views of prison staff, as well as people in custody in whom smoking levels are very high.

The NIHR report ‘Process and impact of implementing a smoke-free policy in prisons in Scotland: TIPs mixed-methods study’ was published early this year and was led by Kate Hunt at the Institute for Social Marketing and Health at the University of Stirling. It also includes contribution from IHW’s Jill Pell, Alistair Leyland, Helen Sweeting, Peter Craig, Emily Tweed and Evangeline Demou.

You can read more here: https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/phr/wglf1204/ 

 

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First published: 3 January 2022