Assessment of 2016 Taiwan tobacco control performance based on WHO MPOWER guidelines
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1
Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan, China
2
School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Taiwan, China
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A11
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ABSTRACT
Background:
Smoking kills more than 27,000 people each year in
Taiwan. This study aims to demonstrate
the significant progress with Taiwan MPOWER performances and compare achievements
with OECD and other Asian countries.
Methods:
Assessment data from Taiwan's laws and regulations, a comprehensive
health surveillance system, and research database and reports, with WHO MPOWER performance rating indicators.
Results:
The adult smoking rate declined from 21.9% in 2008 to 15.3%
in 2016, indicating a 30.3% decline in smoking rate and a decrease in the
number of smokers by approximately 810,000 within 8 years. Taiwan has protected over
90% of the population from smoke-free environments by enforcing the law in
eliminating second hand smoke in public areas, and promoted the recognition of
tobacco hazards to youth especially via campus activities, official websites, Facebook,
and YouTube. It´s worth noting that Taiwan is the 2nd country to carry
out the ordinance of smoke-free parks and national parks around the world. Assisting
over 110,000 smokers since 2012 in quitting smoking successfully by providing the
Second Generation Smoking Cessation Program and other services such as Quitline,
cessation classes and cessation counseling. Over 40% of smokers attempt to quit
after Taiwan enacted health warning labels on tobacco packs. The Health
Promotion Administration has worked with the National Communications Commission
(NCC) to establish the guideline that anti-tobacco textual messages are
required to add on Radio and TV programs, reminding people of tobacco harming.
Conclusions:
Taiwan
gains five 1st performance (Monitoring, Smoke-free environments, Cessation
programmes, Anti-tobacco mass media campaigns, Bans on advertising, promotion
and sponsorship) while compared to OECD and other Asian countries (New Zealand,
Japan, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Taiwan China, etc.), and ranks among the best with
Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. Continued efforts are
needed to raise the health warnings and taxations in the future.