Tobacco Use: Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs

Comprehensive tobacco control programs are coordinated efforts to implement population-level interventions to reduce appeal and acceptability of tobacco use, increase tobacco use cessation, reduce secondhand smoke exposure, and prevent initiation of tobacco use among young people.

Programs combine and integrate evidence-based educational, clinical, regulatory, economic, and social strategies at local, state, or national levels.

Comprehensive tobacco control programs most often include administrative support, surveillance, evaluation, and program monitoring. In the United States, programs are typically organized and funded at the state level to provide a platform for effective implementation of the following components:

-Assistance to community-based organizations and coalitions to pursue local programs and policies to reduce tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure
-Partnerships at local and state levels to engage health systems and providers, businesses, and public and private agencies and organizations, in an effort to broaden the reach and impact of tobacco control interventions
-Mass-reach health communication interventions to inform individual and public attitudes about tobacco use and secondhand smoke
-Cessation services, such as quitlines, to help tobacco users in their efforts to quit
-Information and technical assistance to support the diffusion and adoption of evidence-based practices (e.g., smoke-free policies, affordable and accessible cessation services, increased tobacco product prices, and decreased tobacco product marketing and availability)

Some programs may have authority to implement policies directly, such as restrictions on tobacco product marketing and availability, and smoke-free policies.

The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends comprehensive tobacco control programs based on strong evidence of effectiveness in reducing tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure. Evidence indicates these programs reduce the prevalence of tobacco use among adults and young people, reduce tobacco product consumption, increase quitting, and contribute to reductions in tobacco-related diseases and deaths. Economic evidence indicates that comprehensive tobacco control programs are cost-effective, and savings from averted healthcare costs exceed intervention costs.