View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Institutional Repository of the Freie Universität Berlin International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Article Tobacco Control Progress in Low and Middle Income Countries in Comparison to High Income Countries Carrie L. Anderson 1, Heiko Becher 2 and Volker Winkler 3,* 1 Institute of Tropical Medicine and International Health, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 13353 Berlin, Germany;
[email protected] 2 Institute of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany;
[email protected] 3 Institute of Public Health, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +49-6221-565031 Academic Editors: Linda Bauld and Rosemary Hiscock Received: 22 August 2016; Accepted: 13 October 2016; Published: 24 October 2016 Abstract: The study aimed to describe worldwide levels and trends of tobacco control policy by comparing low and middle income countries with other income categories from 2007 to 2014 and to analyze the corresponding relation to recent changes in smoking prevalence. Policy measure data representing years 2007 to 2014 were collected from all available World Health Organization (WHO) reports on the global tobacco epidemic. Corresponding policy percentage scores (PS) were calculated based on MPOWER measures. Age-standardized smoking prevalence data for years 2010 and 2015 were collected from the WHO Global Health Observatory Data Repository. Trends of PS were analysed with respect to WHO region and OECD country income category. Scatter plots and regression analysis were used to depict the relationship between tobacco control policy of 2010 and change in smoking prevalence between 2015 and 2010 by sex and income category.