The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Universitas Indonesia (UI) has once again produced a new Doctor in Public Health Sciences. On Wednesday, July 2, 2025, Hario Megatsari officially earned his doctoral degree after successfully defending his dissertation during a public doctoral examination held at the Doctoral Promotion Room, Building G, FPH UI. His dissertation, titled “The Association between MPOWER Scores and Adolescent Smoking Prevalence in Indonesia: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Analysis at the District/City Level”, offers an innovation in the form of a scoring-based measurement method for tobacco control programs at the local level.
Hario’s research stems from his concern about the rising number of adolescent smokers in Indonesia. The Tobacco Atlas 2022 reports that over 50 million children aged 13–15 in Indonesia use tobacco products, both smoked and smokeless. This is further exacerbated by the weak implementation of tobacco control policies, especially at the district and city levels. In a global policy evaluation, Indonesia showed stagnation in meeting two of the six MPOWER indicators: Protecting against tobacco smoke exposure (Protect – P) and Enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and promotion (Enforce – E).
MPOWER is a tobacco control policy framework developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The six components of MPOWER include: Monitor tobacco use, Protect people from tobacco smoke, Offer help to quit, Warn about the dangers of tobacco, Enforce bans on advertising, and Raise taxes on tobacco products.
Using a quantitative approach, Hario conducted a series of research stages, including adapting the MPOWER scoring based on national regulations and programs, expert assessments, scoring at the district/city level, and analyzing the relationship between the score and adolescent smoking prevalence. The results indicated that nearly all MPOWER components could be adapted at the local level, except for the Raise taxes (R) component. The MPOWER scores also revealed that tobacco control efforts had been implemented across various regions, not only concentrated in Java. Most notably, the study found a strong association between the Protect (P) component score and a reduction in adolescent smoking prevalence.
These findings provide a valuable contribution to the development of public health policy, particularly in formulating evidence-based tobacco control strategies at the local level. The proposed scoring scheme is considered effective in helping local governments map progress and design more targeted interventions to reduce youth smoking rates.
Hario Megatsari was supervised by Dr. Dra. Rita Damayanti, MSPH as the Promoter and Dr. Dian Kusuma, Sc.D. as the Co-Promoter. The doctoral examination also featured an examining committee consisting of Dien Anshari, S.Sos., M.Si., Ph.D.; Prof. dr. Anhari Achadi, S.K.M., Sc.D.; Prof. dr. Hasbullah Thabrany, M.P.H., Dr.PH.; Dr. Diah Indriani, S.Si., M.Si.; Dr. Rohani Budi Prihatin, S.Ag., M.Si.; and Pungkas Bahjuri Ali, STP., MS., Ph.D.
Hario is the 358th graduate of the Doctoral Program in Public Health Sciences at FPH UI and the 469th graduate of the FPH UI Doctoral Program overall.
(ITM)