Tobacco control measures in India: A Scoping Review Protocol

Abstract Objective: The goal of this scoping review is to identify tobacco control interventions and to cover all aspects of tobacco control strategies in the Indian context. Introduction: Tobacco use and its dependence are now treated as global epidemics and are a significant public health problem in India. Tobacco control is a top priority, both in terms of public health and poverty alleviation. Despite tobacco control policies, various tobacco products are still used in India. Previous studies lacked data on aspects of bidi smoking and smokeless tobacco (SLT) use that are more relevant in the Indian context. Inclusion criteria: This review will consider all peer-reviewed articles and grey literature published in English language across all age groups, any form of tobacco use, and intervention related tobacco control focused on India. Methods : The JBI methodology for scoping reviews will be used for this scoping review. Cochrane Central (Wiley), MEDLINE (PubMed), SCOPUS (Elsevier), Embase (Elsevier), Web of Science (Clarivate), PyscINFO (EBSCO), Ovid (MEDLINE) and Web of Science (Clarivate), will be systematically searched, and a search strategy from PubMed (MEDLINE) is presented in Appendix I. The titles and abstracts of peer-reviewed and grey literature will be screened by two independent reviewers. After the final selection, the full-text screening will also be done by the reviewers. A data extraction sheet will be created using the standardised data extraction tools in JBI SUMARI and presented in Appendix II. Findings will be provided as a narrative summary with supporting tables and diagrams, on tobacco control interventions in India.