BACKGROUND: The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year around the world. In Bangladesh, the burden from tobacco is alarming: 35 percent of adults are currently using tobacco. The objective of the article is to show the mechanism of using the digital infrastructure in periodic monitoring and controlling the tobacco industry interferences.
METHODS: Grambangla Unnayan Committee has developed a surveillance software to document and monitor the incidences of violations of Tobacco Advertisement, Promotion and Sponsorship (TAPS) bans at the Point of Sales (POS) of tobacco products. Two series of periodic surveillance were conducted during two consecutive project periods for tobacco control supported by Vital Strategies and The Bloomberg Philanthropies.
RESULTS: Online surveillance system recorded data of 9990 POS in 18 municipalities during 2nd round in 2022 and identified 14153 advertisements by different types. Thus average prevalence of advertisement per POS we 1.42. However, in first round of surveillance in 2019 a total of 21810 advertisements i.e. incidences of TAPS violations were recorded at 6820 POS in 12 municipalities. Thus the average prevalence of advertisement per POS was 3.2. Advertisement reduced by 55.6%. It was found that there was no tobacco advertisement material i.e. incidence of TAPS ban violations at 2.6 percent POS during first round of online surveillance in 2019, but during second round of surveillance in 2022 it was found that 31.3 percent of the POS were found free of tobacco advertisement material i.e. incidence of TAPS ban violations.
CONCLUSIONS: Comparative analysis of two series of data of consecutive surveillance in 2019 and 2022 show that a digital infrastructure in monitoring violations of TAPS ban and effective tobacco control interventions of GUC have brought considerable success in curbing tobacco industry interference.