The ACT branch proudly presents its August event: Smoking Guns - Generating Evidence to Inform Tobacco Control, presented by Associate Professor Grace Joshy.
Despite declining prevalence of daily smoking (8.3% in 2022-23 vs 11.0% in 2019 in people aged 14 years and over), smoking remains Australia’s leading cause of premature death and disability. This talk will include a brief overview of the tobacco epidemic in the context of policy changes in Australia, a research showcase demonstrating why smoking remains a key health challenge and insights into some of the challenges working in tobacco control research.
The first part of the research showcase will cover student-led research which constructed the first national population profile of people who smoke in Australia using the National Health Survey 2017–18 and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey 2018–19, informing population-level and targeted interventions for reducing tobacco use. Survey-specific microdata was used to estimate weighted population proportions with 95% confidence intervals using binomial models, quantifying the characteristics of people who smoked daily, smoked formerly and never smoked. Findings countered widespread perceptions that people who smoke are largely uneducated, unemployed and suffer poor mental health.
The second part of the research showcase will present a study in close collaboration with colleagues from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the NSW Cancer Council, quantifying the relationship of tobacco smoking to cause-specific mortality in Australia. Hazard ratios estimated using the prospective 45 and Up Study and its linked datasets were applied to population-level data from Australia, to estimate deaths attributable to tobacco smoking in 2019. Findings showed that current (vs never) smoking increased the risk of dying from 23 common causes of death, and smoking is estimated to kill >24,000 people in Australia every year - at least 66 deaths a day. The importance of statistical rigour in synthesis of evidence and conduct of tobacco control research cannot be understated.
Bio: Grace Joshy
Associate Professor Grace Joshy leads the Statistical Methods in Large Scale Epidemiology program of work at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU. Her research is fuelled by various collaborative projects, particularly a large body of work on tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarette use; CVD/cancer epidemiology and survivorship research; and Aboriginal health projects. Grace is passionate about innovative application of biostatistics to policy relevant epidemiological research in chronic disease, Aboriginal health and health service use.
The zoom link will be open at 5.30pm. RSVP is not required. Full zoom details given at the end of the email.
Dinner: After the talk we will be holding a dinner at 7.15pm at Briscola Italian Restaurant, 60 Alinga Street Canberra City, (https://briscolaitalian.com.au/ )
If you are interested in attending the dinner, please let us know by 5pm Monday 25 August by entering your details at SSA Canberra Branch dinner attendance sheet <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tQgomRy2VN7q-VD6oKVey2W-APzqRcs7qFB_o6JtqN4/edit#gid=1577021598> or contacting Warren Muller (warren.muller@csiro.au; 0407 916 868). Please regard this as a firm commitment, not just an intention. For withdrawals after the deadline, please remove your name from the sheet and phone or text Warren (0407 916 868).
NOTE: We are offering discounts to SSA early career and student members who attend dinner! For this meeting, dinners will be a fixed charge of $15 for student members and $25 for early career members.
To join online:
https://anu.zoom.us/j/83494734150?pwd=bENkbOxKwXHYrazLQ47F2SETsid72i.1
@StatSocAus
