Implementation of tobacco control measures in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, 2008–2020

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Abstract

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was developed to assist nations in reducing the demand and supply of tobacco. As of 2020, 182 nations joined the FCTC, agreeing to implement the recommended tobacco control measures. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) ratified the WHO FCTC by August 2006. Given the unique political, cultural, and religious context – and known tobacco industry efforts to influence tobacco use- in these nations, a careful examination of the translation of FCTC measures into policy is needed. This study aimed to assess the implementation of FCTC tobacco control measures at the national level within the six GCC countries.

Method

We collected and coded the FCTC measures that were implemented in the GCC countries. We examined trends and variations of the implementation between 2008 and 2020.

Results

GCC countries implemented most FCTC measures targeting the demand for and supply of tobacco, with some variation among countries. Bahrain and Qatar were more comprehensively implementing FCTC measures while Kuwait and Oman implemented the least number of the FCTC measures. Implementing measures related to tobacco prices and eliminating the illicit tobacco trade has slowly progressed in GCC countries. All GCC countries entirely banned smoking in workplaces while three countries implemented a partial ban in restaurants. Only Oman has restrictions on tobacco ads shown in media. There is progress in implementing FCTC measures related to tobacco packaging, cessation, and sale to minors in most GCC countries.

Conclusions

Given the influence of the tobacco industry in the Gulf region, the findings suggest a need for ongoing surveillance to monitor the proliferation of tobacco control measures and evaluate their effectiveness. Efforts required to address tobacco use should correspond to the unique political and cultural background of the GCC countries.

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Most cited references 40

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Global economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases

Mark Goodchild, Nigar Nargis, Edouard d'Espaignet (2017)

Background The detrimental impact of smoking on health has been widely documented since the 1960s. Numerous studies have also quantified the economic cost that smoking imposes on society. However, these studies have mostly been in high income countries, with limited documentation from developing countries. The aim of this paper is to measure the economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases in countries throughout the world, including in low- and middle-income settings. Methods The Cost of Illness approach is used to estimate the economic cost of smoking attributable-diseases in 2012. Under this approach, economic costs are defined as either ‘direct costs' such as hospital fees or ‘indirect costs’ representing the productivity loss from morbidity and mortality. The same method was applied to 152 countries, which had all the necessary data, representing 97% of the world's smokers. Findings The amount of healthcare expenditure due to smoking-attributable diseases totalled purchasing power parity (PPP) $467 billion (US$422 billion) in 2012, or 5.7% of global health expenditure. The total economic cost of smoking (from health expenditures and productivity losses together) totalled PPP $1852 billion (US$1436 billion) in 2012, equivalent in magnitude to 1.8% of the world's annual gross domestic product (GDP). Almost 40% of this cost occurred in developing countries, highlighting the substantial burden these countries suffer. Conclusions Smoking imposes a heavy economic burden throughout the world, particularly in Europe and North America, where the tobacco epidemic is most advanced. These findings highlight the urgent need for countries to implement stronger tobacco control measures to address these costs.

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Bottom-Up Federalism: The Diffusion of Antismoking Policies from U.S. Cities to States

Charles Shipan, Craig Volden (2006)

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Implementation of key demand-reduction measures of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and change in smoking prevalence in 126 countries: an association study

Shannon Gravely, Gary Giovino, Lorraine Craig … (2017)

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) has mobilised efforts among 180 parties to combat the global tobacco epidemic. This study examined the association between highest-level implementation of key tobacco control demand-reduction measures of the WHO FCTC and smoking prevalence over the treaty's first decade.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Sarah S. Monshi: sarah.monshi@temple.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy

Title: Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1747-597X

Publication date (Electronic): 3 July 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 3 July 2021

Publication date Collection: 2021

Volume: 16

Electronic Location Identifier: 57

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.264727.2, ISNI 0000 0001 2248 3398, Department of Health Services Administration and Policy, College of Public Health, , Temple University, ; 1301 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA

[2 ]GRID grid.412832.e, ISNI 0000 0000 9137 6644, Department of Health Services Administration, , Umm Al-Qura University, ; Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Article

Publisher ID: 393

DOI: 10.1186/s13011-021-00393-8

PMC ID: 8254232

PubMed ID: 34217327

SO-VID: 1cbe6597-fcd4-46f7-91ee-cb6ee8f4e0d7

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date accepted : 17 June 2021

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

Keywords: tobacco control measures,anti-tobacco policy,smoking,tobacco use,gulf cooperation council,framework convention on tobacco control

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

Keywords: tobacco control measures, anti-tobacco policy, smoking, tobacco use, gulf cooperation council, framework convention on tobacco control

Implementation of tobacco control measures in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, 2008–2020

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Abstract

Background

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Results

Conclusions

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Tobacco Prevention & Cessation

Most cited references 40

Global economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases

Bottom-Up Federalism: The Diffusion of Antismoking Policies from U.S. Cities to States

Implementation of key demand-reduction measures of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and change in smoking prevalence in 126 countries: an association study

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