Methodologies used to estimate tobacco-attributable mortality: a review

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Estimating population mortality attributable to tobacco use is vital for public health.
• Current indirect quantification methods lack consensus on optimal approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically overview diverse methodologies for attributing mortality to tobacco consumption.
• To identify commonalities and differences in the foundations of these methods.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was conducted in the Medline database.
• The search focused on papers detailing methodologies for tobacco-attributable mortality estimation.

Main Results:

• Seven distinct methods for attributing mortality to tobacco use were identified.
• Prevalence-based methods and the Peto et al. approach are most frequently utilized.

Conclusions:

• All reviewed methods share similar methodological foundations, primarily using proportional attributable fractions.
• Each method presents inherent limitations, some shared, others specific to the approach.