Evaluating the return on investment of tobacco control intervention in Indonesia

In Indonesia, smoking is the leading cause of noncommunicable diseases. Tobacco control strategies will reduce the burden of smoking. The aim of this study is to determine the return on investment (ROI) of tobacco control program in Indonesia. The OneHealth tool was used to estimate the economic benefits of tobacco prevention interventions. We calculated the resources and costs of selected packages using a five-year time period 2020–2024. Demographic and unit cost data are used to run the model. The economic benefits were described as the amount of lives saved and healthy life years earned. The monetary value of productivity gains is divided by the costs of the intervention to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI). An estimated 1,904 lives will be saved and 30,882 healthy life years will be restored. Intervention of excise taxes contribute to the majority of averted deaths (597 deaths) and mass media campaigns responsible to the life years gained (10,452 life years). The overall economic benefits (13.86 million USD) greatly outweigh the costs over a five-year period (8.5 million USD). The ROI of the chosen packages will be 1.87, indicating that the intervention packages would result in significant health and economic benefits. Overall, the findings suggest that investing in a tobacco control program will help the Indonesian government escape substantial direct and indirect costs. The findings aided in the implementation of the strategic plan and added to the evidence base for better budgeting, resource allocation plans, and overall financial planning in the public sector. © 2021. Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University.© 2021 by Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University, Thailand.