Evaluation on the National Strategic Plan for Tobacco Control 2012-2014

Abstract

The cross-sectional study was conducted to summative evaluation of the National Strategic Plan for Tobacco Control 2012-2014. Data were collected from October to December 2014 and compared with targets indicated in the National Strategic Plan for Tobacco Control. Two groups of respondents were enrolled and interviewed. The first group with 4,009 respondents were persons who aged 15 years old and over from Tak, Mukdahan, Kanchanaburi, Surath Thani as representatives of the four regions of Thailand and Bangkok. The second group with 32 respondents was policy makers working in government agencies and ODPCs located in the same provinces with the first group. The results of the evaluation focused on the main target of the national strategic plan found that the current smoking rate of population ages 15 years and over was 20.9 percent with 39.9 percent and 3.7 percent were male and female respectively. The results were higher than expected targets in the National Strategic Plan for Tobacco Control which were 18.7 percent, 37.5 percent and 2.01 percent respectively. There was an increasing tobacco consumption per capita per year which was higher than target set from 547 to 720 (cigarette/person/year), however the consumption of smokeless tobacco was decreasing from 3.9 percent to 3.3 percent. The average age of the new smokers was 17.2 years old and 74.1 percent of smokers were likely to quit smoking. The main reasons to quit smoking included concerning of their own health as well as their connected persons accounted for 59.6 percent. There were 70.3 percent of those who to quit attempt smoking with 90.3 percent of them with a reason that they were unable to control craving for smoking. Therefore, to increase accessibility to services-related for smoking quitting for smokers, the universal health care coverage system should include those services in all health facilities. Furthermore, the quit smoking medications should be included in the Thai National List of Essen¬tial Medicines. Most importantly the tobacco control policy should be issued as the main agenda of provincial and local authorities.