Article Text

Download PDFPDF

Socioeconomic inequalities in children’s exposure to tobacco retailing based on individual-level GPS data in Scotland
  1. Fiona Caryl1,
  2. Niamh K Shortt2,
  3. Jamie Pearce2,
  4. Garth Reid3,
  5. Richard Mitchell1
  1. 1 MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences, Insistute of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  2. 2 School of Geosciences, Univerity of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  3. 3 Public Health Science Directorate, NHS Health Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Fiona Caryl, MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences, Insistute of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK; fiona.caryl{at}glasgow.ac.uk

Abstract

Background Identifying factors shaping knowledge of and attitudes towards tobacco products in preadolescence is a key component supporting tobacco control policies aimed at preventing smoking initiation. This study quantified exposure to tobacco retailing environments within the individual-level activity spaces of children across a socioeconomic gradient.

Methods One week of global positioning system (GPS) tracking data were collected at 10 s intervals from a nationally representative sample of 10–11-year olds (n=692). Proximity of GPS locations (n=~16 M) to the nearest tobacco retailer (n=9030) was measured and exposure defined when a child came within 10 m of a retailer. Duration, frequency, timing and source of exposure were compared across income deprivation quintiles, along with retail density within children’s home neighbourhoods.

Results On average, children were exposed to tobacco retailing for 22.7 min (95% CI 16.8 to 28.6) per week in 42.7 (35.2–50.1) independent encounters. However, children from the most deprived areas accumulated six times the duration and seven times the frequency of exposure as children from the least deprived areas. Home neighbourhood retail densities were 2.6 times higher in deprived areas, yet the average number of businesses encountered did not differ. Most exposure came from convenience stores (35%) and newsagents (15%), with temporal peaks before and after school hours.

Conclusions By accounting for individual mobility, we showed that children in socially disadvantaged areas accumulate higher levels of exposure to tobacco retailing than expected from disparities in home neighbourhood densities. Reducing tobacco outlet availability, particularly in areas frequently used by children, might be crucial to policies aimed at creating ‘tobacco-free’ generations.

  • denormalization
  • end game
  • environment
  • prevention
  • socioeconomic status

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Contributors All authors designed the study. FC devised methodology, extracted data and conducted the analysis. All authors contributed to writing, revision and approved the final manuscript.

  • Funding This research was funded by NHS Health Scotland. FC and RM are part of the Neighbourhoods and Communities Programme supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12017/10) and the Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU10).

  • Competing interests No, there are no competing interests.

  • Patient consent for publication Not required.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • Data sharing statement No data are available.