WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2017: monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies.

Abstract

"Remarkable progress has been made in global tobacco control since MPOWER was introduced a decade ago as a tool to help implement the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Nearly two thirds of countries (121 of 194) – comprising 63% of the world’s population – have now introduced at least one MPOWER measure at the highest level of achievement (not including Monitoring or Mass media campaigns, which are assessed separately). Overall progress has been steady, with roughly 15 new countries reaching best- practice level on one or more measures every 2 years. As a result, about 4.7 billion people are now covered by at least one best-practice policy intervention at the national level. This is a substantial increase from the 42 countries protecting a total of 1 billion people (15% of the world’s population) at best-practice level in 2007, and shows what can be achieved when tobacco control is prioritized by governments and civil society. (...) Monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies – the focus of this sixth WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic – is an area neither sufficiently prioritized nor adequately funded by countries. As the foundation of effective tobacco control policy development and implementation, monitoring is an essential component of the WHO FCTC, but as of 2016 only about one third of countries, with a total of 2.9 billion people, have comprehensive monitoring systems in place at best- practice level. The comprehensive level requires recent, representative and periodic surveys for both adults and youth to have taken place. While this is an improvement from 2007, when only about one in four countries were monitoring tobacco use at recommended levels, the number of countries with best-practice monitoring has dropped from 77 to 76 since 2014. This is primarily because previously conducted surveys were not repeated within the recommended 5-year window. There are 35 countries (most of which are low- or middle-income) that have weak tobacco use monitoring systems or conduct no surveys at all".