Background Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has set the target to reduce premature mortalities from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by one-third. One of the ways to achieve this is through strengthening the countries’ implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Community health workers (CHWs) involvement has shown promising results in the prevention of NCDs. This systematic review is aimed at critically evaluating the available evidence on the effectiveness of involving CHWs in smoking cessation. Materials and methods We systemically searched PubMed and CENTRAL up to September 2019. We searched for published interventional studies on smoking cessation interventions using the usual care that complemented with CHWs as compared to the usual or standard care alone. Our primary outcome was abstinence of smoking. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed study risks of bias. Result We identified 2794 articles, of which only five studies were included. A total of 3513 smokers with 41 CHWs were included in the studies. The intervention duration range from 6 weeks to 30 months. The studies used behavioral intervention or a combination of behavioral intervention and pharmacological treatment. Overall, the smoking cessation intervention that incorporated involvement of CHWs had higher smoking cessation rates [OR 1.95, 95% CI (1.35, 2.83)]. Significant smoking cessation rates were seen in two studies. Conclusion Higher smoking cessation rates were seen in the interventions that combined the usual care with interventions by CHWs as compared to the usual care alone. However, there were insufficient studies to prove the effectiveness. In addition, there was high heterogeneity in terms of interventions and participants in the current studies.

Background Dengue fever remains the deadliest infectious disease in tropical and subtropical regions. Even though numerous vector control measures have been taken, dengue incidence has continued to rise in the country due to rapid urbanization, population increase, and vertical housing development. Few studies examine the association between light intensity and Aedes and dengue. This study assesses how artificial light interventions may affect Aedes population density and dengue incidence in strata residential buildings in Malaysia. Methods This study was a two-armed, single-blinded, parallel, stratified cluster-randomized trial conducted in epidemiology week (EW) 41 until EW 52 in 2022. Nine intervention sites were applied with artificial light and the standard operating procedure of dengue control. The Aedes density was measured using paddle ovitraps placed at the study sites weekly. The ovitrap index and egg density index were calculated for each site. Results The recovered ovitraps (50.2%) and positive ovitraps (50.3%) were higher among control sites than intervention sites. In both arm groups, positive ovitrap was the highest at a 1-month post-intervention follow-up compared to baseline and immediate post-intervention period. Among intervention sites, the total Aedes eggs were lowest during baseline (24.2%), meanwhile among control sites was during immediate post-intervention (25.2%). There was no significant difference in the ovitrap index between intervention and control sites in the study (β = -3.156, 95% CI: -10.151, 3.839, p = 0.368). Meanwhile, there was a statistically significant difference in egg density index between intervention and control sites (β = 12.607, 95% CI: 3.295, 21.918; p = 0.009). Conclusion Artificial light can serve as a novel approach in vector control for mitigating the transmission of Aedes-borne illnesses. This alternative method could supplement existing insecticide approaches or human behavioural prevention programs. Implementing an innovative device that integrates artificial light as a dengue control is a feasible solution in the future. This study was registered under the Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR) on April 3rd, 2023, with the identification number is TCTR20230403006