Issues in estimating and interpreting tobacco-attributable deaths by country in the South-East Asia Region: recommendations for research and policy

The WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR) is home to 319 million adult tobacco users according to 2025 projections, comprising around 27% of the global total. 1 In response to this challenge, all countries in SEAR have implemented a range of tobacco control policies, guided by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which they are all Parties. As of 2026, all SEAR countries are implementing provisions to reduce demand and supply of tobacco, as advocated under WHO MPOWER package.2 However, to measure impacts of these policies in SEAR, the research community should be equipped with the necessary data, tools and methodologies to produce accurate and reliable estimates of tobacco-attributable mortality.