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Professor Janet Hoek thumbnailBA(Hons - first class), MA(Distinction), Dip.Bis.Admin(Distinction), PhD
Co-Director ASPIRE Aotearoa

Teaches PUBH744 Healthy Public Policy

Contact Details  

Tel +64 4 832 3192
Email janet.hoek@otago.ac.nz

Research Interests and Activities  

Janet's first degrees were in English Literature. She also studied Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, and French – she is currently trying to regain her fluency in French. Her Honours research examined nineteenth century poetry and she explored irony in Beowulf, a very early medieval poem, in her Masterate thesis. She later completed a post-graduate diploma in marketing and her PhD examined question wording effects in surveys. Janet is co-Director of ASPIRE Aotearoa, a University of Otago Research Centre whose members undertake research into smokefree policy and the regulation of nicotine products.

Janet has led several Health Research Council projects and is currently PI of the Whakahā o te Pā Harakeke programme, funded by the Health Research Council. Her work examining plain (or standardised) packaging and tobacco branding informed policy in New Zealand and internationally. She followed up this work by examining novel on-pack tobacco warnings and the impact of complementing on-pack warnings with efficacy messages.

Janet has also undertaken several studies into vaping. She led a feasibility study assessing 'smart' e-cigarettes and explored whether and how people transition from smoking to vaping. She has also explored vaping uptake among people who smoke and young people who do not smoke, and she has tested strategies to encourage full transition from smoking to e-cigarettes among people who smoke deterring uptake among people who do not smoke. She received the 2022 Universities New Zealand Critic and Conscience of Society Award for her work documenting the harms vaping imposes on young people.

She has also received funding from the Royal Society Marsden Fund. She led a project that critically evaluated tobacco industry arguments framing smoking as an “informed choice”. Subsequent work probed identity shifts among people moving from smoking to vaping, and becoming nicotine free. She has also worked on a Marsden study examining tobacco companies’ self-proclaimed “transformation”.

Janet has been a member of several NGO and government advisory groups, provided evidence to government and Select Committees, and was a member of an Australian government expert advisory group overseeing the introduction and refreshment of plain packaging. She has sat on several research grant and selection committees, as well as strategy development and policy groups.

Publications

Hoek, J., & Gendall, P. (2026). Helping smokers quit: The case for tobacco pack inserts. The Briefing, (10 June). Retrieved from https://www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/helping-smokers-quit-case-tobacco-pack-inserts Journal - Research Other

Ball, J., Katoa, L., Cochran, C., & Hoek, J. (2026). Retail compliance and industry adaptation following restrictions on disposable vapes and product visibility in Aotearoa New Zealand: A compliance audit. Tobacco Control. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1136/tc-2025-059976 Journal - Research Article

Gendall, P., Eckert, C., Burke, P., Teddy, L., Waa, A., & Hoek, J. (2026). Evaluation of in-pack efficacy inserts: Two discrete choice studies from Aotearoa New Zealand. Tobacco Control. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1136/tc-2025-059789 Journal - Research Article

Waa, A., Hoek, J., Gartner, C., Edwards, R., Leigh, L., Nip, J., & Teddy, L. (2026). Responding to illicit tobacco trade but not at the expense of sound tobacco control policy. The Briefing, (13 May). Retrieved from https://www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/responding-illicit-tobacco-trade-not-expense-sound-tobacco-control-policy Journal - Research Other

van der Sanden, R., Wilkins, C., Rychert, M., Ball, J., Hoek, J., Truman, P., … Tautolo, E.-S. (2026). Scoping the vape retail environment and retailers' responses to vape control measures in selected Auckland suburbs with different levels of socio-economic deprivation. New Zealand Medical Journal/Te ara tika o te hauora hapori, 139(1629), 28-40. doi: 10.26635/6965.7038 Journal - Research Article

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