Banks C, Rawaf S, Hassounah S
WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education & Training, Department of Primary Care & Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, Charing Cross Campus, 3rd Floor, The Reynolds Building, St Dunstan's Road, London, W6 8RF UK.
Glob Health Res Policy. 2017 Jul 10;2:19. doi: 10.1186/s41256-017-0039-6. eCollection 2017.
Tobacco control policy is essential for addressing the growing tobacco consumption seen in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, the single greatest preventable contributor to the non-communicable disease epidemic. Egypt and Iran have had varied success in using policy to combat this issue. The study aims to identify and compare the factors which have influenced different stages of the policy process - evidence generation, development and implementation.
A scoping review was conducted with a systematic search of 7 databases which was conducted along with searches of Google Scholar, and the World Health Organisation and Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office websites to identify influencing factors at each stage of the policy process.
Twenty-seven relevant articles were identified from the literature search. Factors identified as influencing tobacco control policy in these countries were lobbying by the tobacco industry, the rise of water-pipe smoking, lack of political commitment and the lack of resources to for policy implementation. Iran was found to be leading Egypt on all three areas of the policy process. Implementation was found to be the most pivotal part of the policy process and the area in which Egypt was weakest compared to Iran.
This study addresses a gap in knowledge concerning tobacco control in the Middle East and has identified multiple factors which are potentially slowing the process of enforcing policy to address tobacco consumption. Iran is the regional leader for tobacco control and it is important for Egypt to assess the transferability of its tactics and immediately start implementing measures to control tobacco use.
烟草控制政策对于应对东地中海区域不断增长的烟草消费至关重要，烟草消费是导致非传染性疾病流行的最大可预防因素。埃及和伊朗在利用政策应对这一问题方面取得了不同程度的成功。本研究旨在识别和比较影响政策过程不同阶段（证据生成、制定和实施）的因素。
进行了一项范围综述，系统检索了7个数据库，并在谷歌学术、世界卫生组织和东地中海区域办事处网站上进行搜索，以确定政策过程各阶段的影响因素。
通过文献检索确定了27篇相关文章。在这些国家中，被确定为影响烟草控制政策的因素包括烟草行业的游说、水烟吸食的增加、缺乏政治承诺以及政策实施资源不足。在政策过程的所有三个方面，伊朗都领先于埃及。研究发现，实施是政策过程中最关键的部分，与伊朗相比，埃及在这方面最为薄弱。
本研究填补了中东地区烟草控制知识方面的空白，并确定了多个可能减缓执行政策以应对烟草消费进程的因素。伊朗是烟草控制的区域领导者，埃及评估其策略的可转移性并立即开始实施控制烟草使用的措施非常重要。
