Nudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control

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dc.contributor.advisorNilsson, Warren
dc.contributor.advisorChelwa, Grieve
dc.contributor.authorChilwesa, Mambwe
dc.date.accessioned2025-11-07T10:41:23Z
dc.date.available2025-11-07T10:41:23Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.date.updated2025-11-07T10:38:02Z
dc.description.abstractTobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable death globally. Despite the existing traditional economic approaches like taxation, recent progress in tobacco control has plateaued compared to control efforts in nutrition, sexual reproductive health and alcohol. This discrepancy can be attributed to better nudging efforts in these areas compared to tobacco control. This study aimed to determine the knowledge of tobacco-related health and social problems, applications of behavioural economics in tobacco control amongst tobacco-control stakeholders, and to identify innovative ways of funding for treatment of tobacco-related cancers. This exploratory, cross-sectional, qualitative study was conducted between January 2020 and December 2022. The data collection involved semi-structured interviews and a focus group meeting. Data analysis was done using the thematic semantic analysis approach, with the initial step including verbatim transcription of the interviews followed by the listing of emerging ideas, code generation and sorting of themes. The results demonstrated participants' extensive knowledge of tobacco-related health and social problems and their minimal understanding of behavioural economics including nudging in this space. A few behavioural economics principles were identified which included incentives, bounded rationality, goal gradient theory, gamification, hyperbolic discounting, and herd mentality. Findings also revealed innovative ways to fund the control of tobacco-related cancer, which included public-private partnerships, taxation and occupational health compensations. Despite substantial efforts in the field of tobacco control, existing measures have not yielded the desired results in curbing tobacco smoking and behavioural economics may be an effective tool to bridge the gap. This study highlights the lack of knowledge on nudging as an effective tool for tobacco control. It is imperative to allocate increased funding to further explore the role of nudging in tobacco control and generate additional data in this area.
dc.identifier.apacitationChilwesa, M. (2025). <i>Nudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control</i>. (). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,Graduate School of Business (GSB). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42147en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationChilwesa, Mambwe. <i>"Nudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control."</i> ., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,Graduate School of Business (GSB), 2025. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42147en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationChilwesa, M. 2025. Nudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control. . University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,Graduate School of Business (GSB). http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42147en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Chilwesa, Mambwe AB - Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable death globally. Despite the existing traditional economic approaches like taxation, recent progress in tobacco control has plateaued compared to control efforts in nutrition, sexual reproductive health and alcohol. This discrepancy can be attributed to better nudging efforts in these areas compared to tobacco control. This study aimed to determine the knowledge of tobacco-related health and social problems, applications of behavioural economics in tobacco control amongst tobacco-control stakeholders, and to identify innovative ways of funding for treatment of tobacco-related cancers. This exploratory, cross-sectional, qualitative study was conducted between January 2020 and December 2022. The data collection involved semi-structured interviews and a focus group meeting. Data analysis was done using the thematic semantic analysis approach, with the initial step including verbatim transcription of the interviews followed by the listing of emerging ideas, code generation and sorting of themes. The results demonstrated participants' extensive knowledge of tobacco-related health and social problems and their minimal understanding of behavioural economics including nudging in this space. A few behavioural economics principles were identified which included incentives, bounded rationality, goal gradient theory, gamification, hyperbolic discounting, and herd mentality. Findings also revealed innovative ways to fund the control of tobacco-related cancer, which included public-private partnerships, taxation and occupational health compensations. Despite substantial efforts in the field of tobacco control, existing measures have not yielded the desired results in curbing tobacco smoking and behavioural economics may be an effective tool to bridge the gap. This study highlights the lack of knowledge on nudging as an effective tool for tobacco control. It is imperative to allocate increased funding to further explore the role of nudging in tobacco control and generate additional data in this area. DA - 2025 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Tobacco control KW - behavioural economics KW - nudging KW - tobacco-related cancers KW - smoking prevention KW - qualitative study KW - thematic analysis KW - public-private partnerships KW - taxation KW - hyperbolic discounting KW - incentives LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2025 T1 - Nudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control TI - Nudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42147 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/42147
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationChilwesa M. Nudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control. []. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,Graduate School of Business (GSB), 2025 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42147en_ZA
dc.language.isoen
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentGraduate School of Business (GSB)
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Commerce
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subjectTobacco control
dc.subjectbehavioural economics
dc.subjectnudging
dc.subjecttobacco-related cancers
dc.subjectsmoking prevention
dc.subjectqualitative study
dc.subjectthematic analysis
dc.subjectpublic-private partnerships
dc.subjecttaxation
dc.subjecthyperbolic discounting
dc.subjectincentives
dc.titleNudging' health behavioural change: behavioral economics, Tobacco control and innovative finance for Cancer control
dc.typeThesis / Dissertation
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMPhil
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