Tobacco control measures in India could prevent heart disease and stroke deaths

Smokefree laws and higher tobacco taxes in India could prevent nine million heart disease and stroke deaths over the next decade, a new study says. The findings suggest that these tobacco control strategies would be substantially more effective than pharmacological interventions for reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) - those that affect the heart or the blood vessels - are the leading cause of death worldwide, with over 80 per cent of deaths occurring in lowand middle-income countries. Tobacco use is a major risk factor for CVD. Researchers from Stanford University , University of California San Francisco , Harvard Medical School and Imperial College London used a mathematical model to investigate which tobacco control measures could best reduce the burden of CVD in lowand middle-income countries. Their model estimated the effects of various tobacco control measures and pharmacological therapies on deaths from heart attack and stroke in India between 2013 and 2022. The study, published in PLOS Medicine , compared five different tobacco control measures: smokefree legislation, tobacco taxation, provision of brief cessation advice by healthcare providers, mass media campaigns, and advertising bans.