Abstract
INTRODUCTIONThe Tobacco Control Scale (TCS) was designed for advocacy purposes but has also been used as a research tool. In the present study, we characterized TCS use, its limitations and strengths, and critically assessed its use as a research instrument.METHODSWe conducted an extensive search of the biomedical databases PubMed and Web of Science for the keyword ‘tobacco control scale’ in all fields. The search was limited to studies published in the period March 2006 to December 2019. Out of 69 hits, 32 studies met the inclusion criteria. Two reviewers independently extracted information from each publication regarding their general characteristics, publication and research aspects, and the characteristics of the use of the TCS.RESULTSWe found that researchers have used the TCS as a tool to monitor tobacco control policies mainly in cross-sectional observational studies with ecological and multilevel designs directed to advocacy and the promotion of further research. Different outcomes, such as smoking prevalence and quit ratios, have been associated with tobacco control policy scores. The main reported limitations of the TCS were a low variance across countries and a failure to express enforcement and to incorporate the most recent legislation.CONCLUSIONSThe TCS has been commonly used to assess differences in outcomes according to tobacco control policies. However, there are still areas for improvement in its use in research regarding the lack of comparability of TCS scores across time. The lessons that have been learned should be used to adapt and expand the TCS overseas.
Highlights
MethodsWe conducted an extensive search of the biomedical databases PubMed and Web of Science for the keyword ‘tobacco control scale’ in all fields
INTRODUCTION The Tobacco ControlScale (TCS) was designed for advocacy purposes but has been used as a research tool
Observational, Independent In EU27, countries with higher scores in the Tobacco Control Scale (TCS) has lower The TCS does not score the Advocacy ecological, and variable, original prevalence of smokers, higher quit ratios, and higher level of enforcement except and research cross-sectional data, total score relative decreases in their prevalence of smokers over the for smoke-free policies and and by components last decade the score may not fully reflect tobacco control policies implemented in subsequent years
Summary
We conducted an extensive search of the biomedical databases PubMed and Web of Science for the keyword ‘tobacco control scale’ in all fields. Data sources We performed an extensive literature search in the online databases PubMed and Web of Science to identify publications that have used the TCS score(s) as an independent or dependent variable from 27 March 2006, when the first TCS was published, until 1 December 2019. We completed our search by manually reviewing the reference lists of the selected papers and by conducting the same search in Google Scholar (www.scholar.google.com; with search terms in English). These additional searches provided five new publications that met the inclusion criteria and the full-texts were reviewed
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