Development and challenges of tobacco epidemic surveillance in China

Abstract

Tobacco use is the leading preventable risk factor causing the global burden of disease and one of China's most significant public health issues. Continuous and dynamic tobacco monitoring can provide critical index data for developing tobacco control strategies and measures and evaluating the impact of tobacco control. The WHO has incorporated monitoring programs into the crucial content of tobacco control and put forward relevant compliance requirements in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The Chinese government has actively promoted tobacco control significantly since the entry into force of the FCTC in China and continuously strengthened tobacco monitoring. In 2021, China's tobacco monitoring was honored to have reached the highest level required by the WHO. This study introduces the sampling design of tobacco surveys, monitoring content, the definition of key indicators and data weighting based on a complex sampling design, analyzing the challenges facing in the current setting, and provides a reference for the understanding and utilization of the data, the comparison of the results, and the future development of tobacco monitoring. The surveys involved in this study will focus on the specialized epidemiological surveys of tobacco for adults and adolescents carried out nationwide.