translated from Spanish: Launched mobile application to evaluate compliance with the tobacco Act

With the entry into force of the Convention frame of the World Health Organization (who) for the Control of tobacco, the laws of the signatory countries have been adapting and improving, achieving a decrease in the numbers of people who smoke . Despite these improvements, 7 million people die each year from tobacco: more than 6 million are consumers and nearly one million passive smokers.
Chile, meanwhile, while the latest health survey shows that smoking fell more than 10 percentage points in the last 10 years for specialists is still a high figure, because 33% of adults smoke and 45 people die each day due to the tabaquis Mo.
In order to continue the decrease in consumption levels, it is essential to continue to improve the legislation by introducing new measures that will reduce the appeal of tobacco, especially for the young, as well as to assess whether these laws are serving. However, this assessment is pending in many countries.
For this reason, and in order to design a method to measure the enforcement of tobacco laws, who launched at the beginning of the 2018 an international tender for academic centers around the world to send proposals. Finally, seven were elected countries: Seychelles Islands, Mongolia, Pakistan, Romania, Thailand, Uganda and Chile (the only Latin American to participate).
In our country the study will take place in collaboration with the Ministry of health (Minsal) and will be carried out by the Centre of epidemiology and policy of health (CEPS) Faculty of medicine clinic German university development, team of researchers also be responsible for the analysis of the results.
It is a project that aims to know if you smoke in places prohibited by law, make sure that it is advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco which should not be, and determine the best methodology for assessing compliance with the law. Note that does not seek to monitor or sanctions, but rather to assess the national enforcement of existing laws.
The Secretariat for public health, Paula Daza, said that, although “the regional’s health made a great deal of control, we believe that this study will not only be a great contribution to help assess the implementation of a law implemented, but also to improve the” strategies at the national level of the tobacco epidemic”.
At the same time, stressed that “the value of this study is not only to measure compliance with or develop a good methodology to do so, but also consists in the participation in health of all citizens as individuals committed to the health care and the” strengthening of services”.
To achieve its goal, the study includes the use of the mobile app Ubik tobacco, “which empowers individuals, organizations and communities to monitor spaces to verify compliance with anti-tobacco laws. This is, basically, a survey on ground that the same citizens apply in establishments which visit usually using app Ubik tobacco that must be downloaded”, said Armando Peruga researcher CEPS UDD. Under the motto “ready. “UbiK, already!” it will encourage anyone to download and use the application. Note that organizers guarantee the confidentiality of both the process and the delivery of results.
For his part, the representative of PAHO in Chile, Gerardo Cosío, explained that “this study is being developed in Chile because the country has a good law tobacco, but still is it can improve, and move in generic packaging and the prohibition of the use of flavourings It’s a pending challenge”.
For more information on how to participate and to download the application, you must enter medicina.udd.cl/ubik-tabaco/

Original source in Spanish