Tobacco Control Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control, Institut Catala d'Oncologia, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain.
Tobacco Control Research Group, Institut d'Investigacio Biomedica de Bellvitge, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain.
Tob Control. 2022 Sep;31(5):642-648. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056395. Epub 2021 May 24.
Monitoring tobacco control policy implementation is one of the keys for tobacco consumption reduction in Latin America (LA). This study reports on the adaptation of the Tobacco Control Scale (TCS) for use in LA countries and the level of tobacco control policy implementation in this region according to the scale.
Ecological cross-sectional survey. The questionnaire to measure tobacco control policies was a translated (into Spanish and Portuguese) and adapted version of the last TCS as used in Europe. The resulting TCS-LA maintains the same structure as the original TCS, with eight policy domains and 100 points (pts) as maximum score; however, four policy domains were adapted because the exact same rationale could not be applied. At least two non-governmental tobacco control experts were contacted per country to answer the TCS-LA.
Informants from 17 out of 18 countries completed the questionnaire. Using the TCS-LA, Panama (70 pts), Uruguay (68 pts) and Ecuador (61 pts) exhibited the strongest tobacco control policies, while Guatemala (32 pts), Bolivia (30 pts) and Dominican Republic (29 pts) have implemented a lower number of tobacco control policies. Eight countries reached 50% of the TCS-LA total possible score, indicating a relatively good implementation level of tobacco control policies.
Panama, Uruguay and Ecuador are the tobacco control policy leaders in LA; however, tobacco control in the region has room for improvement since nine countries have a total score under 50 pts. The TCS is a feasible and adaptable tool to monitor tobacco control in other WHO regions beyond Europe.
监测烟草控制政策的实施是拉丁美洲（LA）减少烟草消费的关键之一。本研究报告了烟草控制量表（TCS）在 LA 国家的适用性，以及根据该量表该地区烟草控制政策的实施水平。
生态横断面调查。用于测量烟草控制政策的问卷是欧洲最后一次使用的 TCS 的翻译（西班牙语和葡萄牙语）和改编版本。由此产生的 TCS-LA 保持与原始 TCS 相同的结构，有八个政策领域和 100 分（pts）作为最高分；然而，由于不能应用完全相同的原理，对四个政策领域进行了调整。每个国家至少联系了两名非政府烟草控制专家来回答 TCS-LA。
18 个国家中的 17 个国家的信息提供者完成了问卷。使用 TCS-LA，巴拿马（70 分）、乌拉圭（68 分）和厄瓜多尔（61 分）表现出最强的烟草控制政策，而危地马拉（32 分）、玻利维亚（30 分）和多米尼加共和国（29 分）实施的烟草控制政策较少。有八个国家达到了 TCS-LA 总可能得分的 50%，表明烟草控制政策的实施水平相对较好。
巴拿马、乌拉圭和厄瓜多尔是 LA 的烟草控制政策领导者；然而，该地区的烟草控制还有改进的空间，因为有九个国家的总得分低于 50 分。TCS 是一种可行且可适应的工具，可用于监测欧洲以外的其他世卫组织区域的烟草控制情况。
