• Janet Chung-Hall, Geoffrey T Fong, Pete Driezen, and Lorraine Craig.
• Department of Psychology (Chung-Hall, Fong, Driezen, Craig) and School of Public Health and Health Systems (Fong), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont.; Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (Fong), Toronto, Ont.
• CMAJ Open. 2018 Jul 1; 6 (3): E412-E422.

BackgroundThe Canadian government has committed to an endgame target of less than 5% tobacco use by 2035. The aims of this study were to assess baseline levels of support for potential endgame policies among Canadian smokers, by province/region, demographic characteristics and smoking-related correlates, and to identify predictors of support.MethodsWe analyzed data for 3215 adult (age ≥ 18 yr) smokers from the Canadian arm of the 2016 International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey. We estimated weighted percentages of support for endgame measures for 6 provinces/regions of the country. We used weighted logistic regression models to identify predictors of support for 14 endgame strategies.ResultsAmong cigarette endgame policies, support was highest for reducing nicotine content (70.2%), raising the legal age for purchase (69.8%), increasing access to alternative nicotine products (65.8%) and banning marketing (58.5%). Among e-cigarette policies, there was majority support for restricting youth access (86.1%), restricting nicotine content (64.9%), prohibiting use in smoke-free places (63.4%) and banning marketing (54.8%). The level of support for other endgame measures ranged from 28.9% to 45.2%. Support for cigarette and e-cigarette policies was generally higher among smokers with intentions to quit and those from Quebec. Support for e-cigarette policies was generally lower among smokers who also used e-cigarettes daily.InterpretationThere is considerable support among Canadian smokers for endgame policies that go beyond current approaches to tobacco control. Our findings provide a baseline for evaluating future trends in smokers' support for innovative measures to radically reduce smoking rates in Canada.Copyright 2018, Joule Inc. or its licensors.

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