stakeholder’s assessment of the awareness and effectiveness of smoke-free law in thailand

Background: this study reports stakeholders’ ratings, and perceived gaps in world health organization’s (who) framework convention on tobacco control (fctc) article 8 implementation in thailand viewed against who’s guidelines for article 8 and to inform action in preparing the 2017 tobacco product control act. methods: stakeholder ratings of guideline provisions of article 8 on a three-tiered scale of implementation from understanding to effectiveness and efficiency were used to identify gaps in enforcement and compliance important to success in meeting article 8 goals. this stakeholder assessment occurred through a stakeholder meeting of 55 stakeholders in bangkok, thailand in june 2016. results: the average of all assessment ratings by stakeholders on an ascending 0-3 scale had a mean score of 1.67, which means the level of implementation for article 8 in thailand was rated less than effective for enforcement. the assessment shows that the public understanding of smoke-free principles is also poor at a mean of 1.28, that there is incomplete effectiveness of smoke-free measures with a mean of 1.75, and only a general effectiveness that smoke-free protections are adequately covering most places with a mean of 1.98. more needs to be done to make all places compliant through enforcement efforts rated with a mean of only 1, and that more is necessary for protection from tobacco-smoke exposure in other public places and in private vehicles with mean ratings of 1.71 and 1.14. conclusion: this stakeholder approach using a three-tiered rating scale found that the implementation of article 8 in thailand is still lacking. with this approach, stakeholders identified critical issues needing improvement and informed changes in the then-proposed tobacco product control act which later was adopted in 2017