Of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers, 80% live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As a result, tobacco use is a major contributor to the high burden of noncommunicable disease and premature death in LMICs. Promoting cessation is the key to reversing current global trends in tobacco-related morbidity and mortality over the next few decades.
Vietnam, an LMIC, has one of the highest smoking rates in the world. According to the 2015 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 45.3% of Vietnamese men were current smokers. The country has implemented a range of evidence-based tobacco control policies as defined by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control including a national toll-free Quitline, launched in 2015. However, most smokers who attempt quitting do not call the Quitline or use cessation treatment. In 2015, only 2.3% of recent quitters (who quit for less than 12 months) and current smokers who made past-year quit attempts received in-person or telephone treatment for smoking cessation.
