The assessment phase involves reflecting on public health needs and identifying appropriate objectives. The public health objectives may concern the adoption of new healthier behaviours by the population or the improvement of epidemic indicators for smoking (e.g. the percentage of daily smokers in a given population or the number of cessation attempts made over a given period).
The aim of this step is to assess the situation. What is the public health problem? Which populations does it affect? What do we know about these populations? What has already been done to address this problem? What should we leverage in order to change a behaviour?
This situation assessment is essential for constructing appropriate and effective actions.
What types of information should be collected and analysed in order to assess a situation?
An assessment requires the most precise description of the context and needs. To produce this, the questions below should be answered.
- What smoking-related health problems are present in the population? E.g. this may be the prevalence of smoking-related diseases
- What is the epidemiological situation related to smoking? E.g. proportion of the population that smokes; characterisation of smokers (age, sex, socioprofessional category, etc.); amount and type of tobacco consumed…
- What are the attitudes and habits related to smoking?
- Reasons for smokers to start and continue smoking (peer pressure, smoking environment, etc.)
- Difficulties (social norms, fear of being left out, etc.) and motivations for smoking cessation (improved health/physical condition, etc.)
- Places where tobacco is bought and consumed
- More broadly, what determinants (individual, economic, societal, etc.) can be considered as obstacles to or drivers for smoking cessation?
- Are there priority geographical areas? E.g. do some regions have higher rates of smoking?
- What is the target environment for the intervention? E.g. nationwide, in schools, in urban settings…
- What is the regulatory, political and societal framework? E.g. regulations on sales, taxes, neutral packaging, accessibility of treatments, measures likely to be introduced soon, societal acceptability of anti-smoking measures in general which may impact public policies…
- Which existing resources, services and offers can be mobilised? E.g. healthcare professionals mobilised/trained in smoking cessation, remote support initiatives (helpline, app)
- Who are the stakeholders and how are they organised? E.g. identify and describe the role of the institutions, public services, and public/private/non-profit partners that could be called upon; reflect on the involvement of community groups or cultural organisations; consider existing local policies
- Which professionals can we involve in the implementation, the monitoring and the evaluation of the intervention?
- What human and financial resources are available?
Have the identified problems already been the subject of initiatives? If yes, what worked and what did not? Here we note the importance of using different indicators to monitor and review the already implemented interventions, as these can feed future reflections and justify choices for new interventions.
This assessment, based on an analysis of all the information collected, makes it possible to define opportunities for implementing a relevant and effective intervention that meets a real need and will be accepted by the target population.
More about surveillance: the assessment of a situation is closely linked to the population health surveillance initiatives that are in place. To find out more, you can visit the WHO FCTC Knowledge Hub on Surveillance website.