Community-Based Intervention Strategies to Reduce Tobacco Use in Asia: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Introduction Tobacco use remains a global health challenge as one-tenth of world’s population consume it regularly–thereby increasing its disease burden. Among all programs implemented, community-based interventions showed great potential, considering its ubiquity and practicableness. However, since tobacco consumption’s prevalence persists, especially in Asia, further reviews are needed. Objective To analyze prior community-based tobacco control programs in Asia and identify potential approaches to be implemented as a mean to reduce tobacco use Methods A systematic review was conducted through PubMed, Scopus, and CENTRAL, searching for randomized controlled trials (RCT) implementing community-based programs to control tobacco usage in Asia. Studies selected were assessed for bias risk with Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials. Results The search yielded eleven RCTs with a total of 28,805 subjects. Smoking cessation interventions focusing on education and counselling are proven to be effective in reducing tobacco consumption and increasing quit rate. Moreover, prevention programs which include school-based interventions, reduce the likeliness of adolescents to smoke in the future and also prevent further tobacco use in recent youth smokers. Conclusions To conclude, community-based interventions showed promising results to be widely implemented as tobacco control and prevention strategies, helping to raise public awareness towards tobacco hazards and reducing the number of tobacco-related diseases and mortality worldwide