A decade of tobacco control efforts: Implications for tobacco smoking prevalence in Eastern Mediterranean countries.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the association between the 10-year implementation of tobacco control policies, cigarette affordability index and changes in tobacco smoking prevalence across Eastern Mediterranean (EMR) countries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An ecologic study was conducted using EMR countries as the analytical unit. Data from three sources were utilized: the MPOWER scale to measure tobacco control policy implementation (2010-2020), the tobacco affordability index (expressed as a percentage of GDP per capita required to purchase 2000 cigarettes, from 2010 to 2020), and national tobacco smoking prevalence data for EMR countries (2010-2023). Linear Fixed-effect regression was employed to investigate associations between changes in MPOWER scores, the cigarette affordability index, and alterations in tobacco prevalence over a decade. RESULTS: Statistically significant inverse associations were observed between changes in MPOWER scores and tobacco smoking prevalence among both men and women in EMR countries (P-value<0.05). Each unit increase in MPOWER score corresponded to a 0.26% reduction in tobacco prevalence among men and a 0.12% reduction among women. The regression model revealed that each unit increase in the cigarette affordability index was linked to a 0.9% decrease in tobacco smoking prevalence across EMR countries (P-value<0.05). Furthermore, even after adjusting for multiple confounders, significant inverse associations were noted between tobacco monitoring (ß = -0.41), health warning (ß = -0.45), and changes in tobacco smoking prevalence (P-value<0.05). CONCLUSION: This study underscored the effectiveness of enhancing the implementation of tobacco control policies and increasing the cigarette affordability index as preventive measures to reduce tobacco smoking prevalence in EMR countries over the past decade.

Clinical features of colorectal cancer in Iran: a 15-year review.

OBJECTIVE: The increasing frequency of colorectal cancer in Asian countries, which have traditionally had a lower incidence than populations in developed countries, and a lower age of onset in Iran led us to perform a study on patients with colorectal cancer to investigate the clinical features of colorectal cancer in Iranians. METHODS: We studied 977 consecutive cases of colorectal cancer in terms of age, gender, and anatomic location during a 15-year period (1989-2004). The patients were hospitalized in three referral hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti Medical University in Tehran, Iran. Related data were extracted from the patients' medical records and processed using SPSS ver. 12. Most of our patients (251 cases or 25.6%) were between 60 and 69 years of age. We recorded 534 men (54.3%) and 443 women (45.7%). A total of 36% of patients were between 40 and 59 years and 306 patients (31.32%) had rectal cancer. RESULTS: The highest frequency of colorectal cancer in our study belonged to an age group a decade younger than the range mentioned in the literature for populations in developed societies. CONCLUSION: Regarding similar studies, it seems reasonable to adopt screening a decade earlier for Iranian patients.