Health, demographic change and well-being. Those are the key areas of SILNE-R research identified by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in a recent press release on the SILNE-R project. The release is part of the Ministry’s focus on equity and gender in research and highlights the accent on gender, SES, social network and family backgrounds deployed in SILNE-R.

The release highlights SILNE-R’s comparison of introduction of tobacco control policies in Finland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy and Portugal. The research includes among others a review of the implementation and impact of tobacco control policies at the local level (WP6), a survey of 20,000 students on the effect of tobacco control strategies (WP 8) as well as 56 qualitative focus group interviews with adolescents at schools from a city in each country (WP 9).

The focus group interviews include discussions on experiences and attitudes towards smoking, which helps to gain a deep understanding of the factors that influence the smoking behaviour of adolescents. These and other data sources will provide SILNE-R an understanding of the social context and gender-specific factors related to smoking habits.

Read the full press release (German)