Jun 21, 2019 Framework Convention Alliance hosted a webinar discussion to mark the publication of two new studies related to the FCTC in the British Medical Journal by York University’s Global Strategy Lab.

The first study describes a systematic process by which the authors collected, appraised, selected, and reported best-available national estimates of cigarette consumption for 71 countries from 1970 to 2015. Overall the data concord with Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s previously published country-level data, but this study’s new dataset has the advantage of not smoothing year-over-year discontinuities that are necessary for robust quasi-experimental impact evaluations.

The second study uses these data to measure the impact of the FCTC using two quasi-experimental designs. Overall the authors find no significant change in the rate at which global cigarette consumption has been decreasing following the FCTC’s adoption in 2003; however, stratified analysis reveals significant reductions in cigarette consumption among high-income and European countries, and significant increases among low- and middle-income and Asian countries.