Future perspectives for strengthening the tobacco industry fight indicators

The tobacco industry, as a “commercial” determinant of health, uses various tactics to increase the number of smokers at the global level. Governments, with the support of the tobacco control community, should focus on reversing the tobacco endgame. Watching out for industry manipulations with objective and well-known tools might be helpful. Although WHO-MPOWER is a frequently used assessment tool to define the tobacco control capacity of the countries, it may not give “objective” messages to assess the situation of tobacco industry interference. On the other hand, the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index (GTIII) is a better indicator to understand and emphasize the tobacco industry interference. Comparing these two assessment tools might be helpful in deciding which one to use. In this regard, we aimed to compare selected countries’ tobacco control status using MPOWER and GTIII indicators. Data from twenty-four countries were included in the study. We found that a country that fully covers the MPOWER criteria can be open to industry interference based on the GTIII values. This discrepancy highlights the need for more comprehensive tools to assess the status of tobacco interference. Besides the current ones, the development of new indicators with a transdisciplinary approach might also be helpful in the tobacco endgame.