The Scope of Tobacco Abuse in Kenya and Interventions Taken to Promote Cessation: A Review

Abstract

Studies have revealed that the prevalence of tobacco abuse in Kenya has continued to rise sharply over the past few years hence causing worries among health providers and agencies mandated to deal with drug abuse. Various reports and surveys by international and local agencies have con-ducted researches that underscore this observation. The economic burden associated with ailments from tobacco abuse in Kenya is enormous. This review explores the scope of tobacco abuse in Kenya; loss of livelihoods as well as the health implications and disease burden. Published articles were identified using electronic searches such as Google scholar, government reports, case studies and Web of Science. Most of the eligible articles were those published between January 2000 and October 2018. The considered studies were evaluated against the norms drawn from the Cochrane Re-viewers’ Handbook version 5.0.0. The existing facts on tobacco use by gender in Kenya show that 15.1% of the current tobacco users were men while women constituted 0.8%. It is estimated that the Kenyan government spends an outrageous 15 bn Kenyan shillings (KES) in mopping up the effects of tobacco abuse annually. The common smoking cessation approaches mainly employed are community-based interventions and media campaigns with very minimal use of medical interventions. Kenya has tried to control tobacco abuse through legislation such as the formulation of the 2007 Tobacco control act (TCA). Knowledge on tobacco has been enhanced through research, tobacco promotion and sponsorship (TAPS), international tobacco control (ITC), Kenya demographic health survey (KDHS) and Global adult tobacco survey (GATS). Despite these efforts, statistics show a worrying trend in tobacco use among the young Kenyan population with several studies confirming increase in tobacco use among this category of the Kenyan population. Consequently, expenditure arising from tobacco abuse has sharply increased both nationally and at the individual level.