Prevalence of smoking in the Maghreb: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world and kills up to seven million people each year. Monitoring its prevalence is important for prevention programs. The aim of this work was to summarize the literature on the prevalence of smoking in the Maghreb countries during the past two decades.

METHODS

The research was conducted on Medline via Pubmed based on the Mesh terms: «Tobacco Use», «Smoking» and «Africa, Northern». Were included articles reporting the prevalence of current smoking in the general population or a subgroup of the population in one or more Maghreb countries. The extracted data was related to current smoking, its definition, total prevalence and prevalence by sex.

RESULTS

About 50 articles were included, the data was mainly from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Two studies reported prevalence among college students in Libya. The highest prevalences in the general population were noted in Tunisia with an overall prevalence, during the period studied, of 25% (95% CI [21% -29%]). This prevalence was 16% (95% CI [14% -18%]) in Morocco and 14% (95% CI [8% -22%]) in Algeria.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence reported was generally high, especially in Tunisia, although lower than in developed countries, hence the importance of setting up and strengthening prevention and control measures, mainly among young people.