Background and challenges to implementation:
Bangladesh is one of the high tobacco consumption countries of the world. Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), Bangladesh 2009 shows that 44.7% of men and 1.5% of women smoke, while 26.4% of men and 27.9% of women use smokeless tobacco. According to GATS, 68% of smokers and 48% of smokeless tobacco user wanted or planned to quit tobacco in past 12 months. Clinic based tobacco cessation service is available only in few urban settings.A community based tobacco cessation program utilizing community health workers (CHW) has been initiated in a rural setting from 2014.

Intervention or response:
Two CHWs of a non-government (NGO) health care provider ECOH were trained to deliver cessation advice during courtyard meetings as a part of their regular health promotion activities in a village. Courtyard meetings were conducted involving 20 to 25 members of several households in regular intervals covering the whole village in a month. CHWs delivered the messages regarding the ill effects of tobacco use and encouraged identified users to quit. Subsequently, those who agreed or showed an intention to quit were followed through a mobile phone call after two weeks and subsequently after two and six months.

Results and lessons learnt:
During the program period of 18 months, 196 (Men 92, Women 104) tobacco users were registered from 26 courtyard meetings. Mean (±SD) age of the participants was 42±17.6. Among them smoking tobacco (ST) user were 78 (40%, all men), while smokeless tobacco (SLT) user were 118 (60%, men 17, women 101). At six-month follow-up, overall tobacco quit rate was 8.1%. Number (%) of SLT quitter 13 (11%), among them 9 (8%) were women and 4 (23%) were men. For ST 3(3.8%) men were quitted.

Conclusions and key recommendations:
Brief advice through CHW in courtyard meeting can be an effective cessation method of quitting SLT for the rural community in Bangladesh.