Abbreviated Name:
Tobacco use among persons 15+ years
Indicator Name:
Age standardized prevalence of current tobacco use among persons aged 15+ years
Domain:
Health determinants and risks / Risk factors
Related Terms:
Non-communicable diseases, risk factors
Definition:
The percentage of the population aged 15 years and over who currently use any tobacco product (smoked and/or smokeless tobacco) on a daily or non-daily basis. Tobacco products include cigarettes, pipes, cigars, cigarillos, waterpipes (hookah, shisha), bidis, kretek, heated tobacco products, and all forms of smokeless (oral and nasal) tobacco. Tobacco products exclude e-cigarettes (which do not contain tobacco), “e-cigars”, “e-hookahs”, JUUL and “e-pipes”.
Measurment Method:
Number of respondents aged 15+ years currently using any tobacco product (smoked or smokeless)/(number of survey respondents aged 15+
years) x 100.
years) x 100.
Numerator:
Number of current smokers 15 + years (daily or less than daily) of any tobacco product in the population surveyed
Denominator
Total size of surveyed population (Smokers and non-smokers)
Estimation method:
A statistical model based on a Bayesian negative binomial meta-regression is used to model prevalence of current tobacco use for each country, separately for men and women. A full description of the method is available as a peer-reviewed article in The Lancet, volume 385, No. 9972, p966–976 (2015). Once the age-and-sex-specific prevalence rates from national surveys were compiled into a dataset, the model was fit to calculate trend estimates from the year 2000 to 2025. The model has two main components: (a) adjusting for missing indicators and age groups, and (b) generating an estimate of trends over time as well as the 95% credible interval around the estimate. Depending on the completeness/comprehensiveness of survey data from a particular country, the model at times makes use of data from other countries to fill information gaps. When a country has fewer than two nationally representative population-based surveys in different years, no attempt is made to fill data gaps and no estimates are calculated. To fill data gaps, information is “borrowed” from countries in the same UN subregion. The resulting trend lines are used to derive estimates for single years, so that a number can be reported even if the country did not run a survey in that year. In order to make the results comparable between countries, the prevalence rates are age-standardized to the WHO Standard Population. Estimates for countries with irregular surveys or many data gaps will have large uncertainty ranges, and such results should be interpreted with caution.
Disaggregation:
Gender and age. In the case of gender: data should be separated for males and females, and combined (total) prevalence should also be provided. In the case of age: taking into account the age range selected for the relevant survey, data on smoking prevalence should be broken down by age groups (preferably by 10-year category, e.g. 25−34, 35−44).
Primary data sources:
"National household surveys using standard methods across time, so that changes over time can be measured. Examples of such surveys include:
- Tobacco-specific surveys such as the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS),
- Multi-risk-factor surveys on noncommunicable diseases such as the WHO Stepwise Approach to Surveillance (WHO STEPS); Other health surveys such as the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS)."
- Tobacco-specific surveys such as the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS),
- Multi-risk-factor surveys on noncommunicable diseases such as the WHO Stepwise Approach to Surveillance (WHO STEPS); Other health surveys such as the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS)."
Alternate data sources:
These include: national censuses, national health surveys, and other national household surveys that may be about other topics such as household expenditure. Such surveys may be conducted by the country’s national statistical offices, or any other relevant agency, or by national or international research groups (and include academic research or studies carried out by nongovernmental organizations). If no recent national data are available, country estimates may be found in the WHO Global Health Observatory Data Repository.
Measurment frequency:
At least once every five years.
