Tobacco smoking: Health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions

Figures & data

Table 1. Main causes of death from tobacco smoking and benefits of stopping.

Cause of death from smoking	Benefit of stopping smoking
Coronary heart disease and stroke	Preventable if cessation occurs in early adulthood; at least partially reversible thereafter
Cancers of the lung and upper airways	Preventable if cessation occurs in early adulthood; further increase in risk prevented thereafter
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Preventable if cessation occurs in early adulthood; further decline in lung function slowed thereafter
Miscarriage and underdevelopment of foetus	Preventable if cessation occurs early in pregnancy; risk is mitigated by stopping at any time in pregnancy

Table 2. Estimates of tobacco smoking prevalence in world regions.

Region	Male prevalence %	Female prevalence %	Overall prevalence %
Africa	23	3	13
Caribbean Central and Northern America	20	4	13
South America	30	15	21
Central Southern and Western Asia	37	4	23
Eastern and South-eastern Asia	45	4	24
Eastern Europe	42	22	31
Northern Europe	28	22	27
Southern Europe	35	24	28
Western Europe	33	24	29
Oceania	43	19	30
World	32	7	23

Note: Current smoking of any tobacco product, adults aged 15 years and older, age-standardised rate, by gender. ‘Tobacco smoking’ includes cigarettes, cigars, pipes or any other smoked tobacco products. ‘Current smoking’ includes both daily and non-daily or occasional smoking. From Gowing et al. (2015).

Figure 1. Factors associated with transitions in the natural history of smoking (parentheses indicate negative associations).

Table 3. Effective interventions for combating smoking.

Intervention	Effectiveness
Increasing the financial cost through increasing excise duty and reducing illicit supply	1–2 percentage point reduction in prevalence for 10% increase in cost of smoking; increases cessation and reduces initiation
Anti-tobacco marketing campaigns	Effect on cessation and initiation varies with content and intensity of campaigns
Brief physician advice to smokers	1–3 percentage point increase in long-term smoking cessation rate in all those receiving it regardless of initial motivation to quit
Prescription for varenicline, nicotine replacement therapy, bupropion, nortriptyline or cytisine	5–15 percentage point increase in quit success in those using it to try to quit (highest with varenicline and nicotine patches plus faster acting nicotine replacement therapy)
Behavioural support, either face to face or by telephone	3–10 percentage point increase in long-term quit success among those using it to try to quit for multi-session support delivered by trained specialists, the effect apparently being additive with pharmacotherapy
Printed self-help materials	1–2 percentage point increase in long-term quit success in those using it to try to quit compared with nothing
Peer-led school-based anti-smoking programmes and social competence training	Reduction in youth uptake varies with content and intensity of the programme

Gowing, L. R., Ali, R. L., Allsop, S., Marsden, J., Turf, E. E., West, R., & Witton, J. (2015). Global statistics on addictive behaviours: 2014 status report. Addiction, 110, 904–919. doi:10.1111/add.12899

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