Research priorities to build national capacity
| Component | Priority | Rational |
|---|---|---|
| • Evidence | Effects of smoking on diseases in less developed countries, e.g. tuberculosis | For less developed countries, tuberculosis and other diseases may be far greater contributors to disease burden than lung cancer, COPD, and coronary heart disease |
| Economics of tobacco control | Need to understand macro-economic factors in low, middle, and high income countries especially related to how higher taxes will reduce use among youth and poor | |
| Regulation of tobacco products | Research to assess consequences of regulation on initiation, cessation, and health effects is needed in order to modify the regulatory process on an ongoing basis | |
| Implementation, enforcement, and evaluation of tobacco control policies | Need to understand the cultural, social, and political factors that facilitate or inhibit the adoption of tobacco control policies (e.g. smoke-free places, advertising bans, and health warnings) as well as factors that lead to enforcement of existing policies | |
| Development of individual and population focused interventions to promote cessation methods for smokers in less developed countries | Research on societal barriers to quitting as well as communication methods suitable for different populations. Investigate different policy approaches to encourage cessation | |
| Interventions to prevent smoking initiation by women and protect women and children from exposure to secondhand smoke | Women are a global target of the tobacco industry. Investigate approaches that use family planning, hospital visits, and other venues to reach women and vulnerable populations | |
| Interventions for health care professionals | Need to encourage cessation among health care professionals as well as improve their knowledge, motivation and skills to promote cessation | |
| • Infrastructure | Creating coalitions of tobacco control partners | Need to establish better linkages among tobacco control groups within countries that include government agencies, research organisations and NGOs so that efforts are more comprehensive and synergistic |
| Development of tracking and surveillance systems | Develop cost effect methods to monitor the tobacco epidemic as well as to obtain data to evaluate progress to strengthen tobacco control policies and programmes and assess compliance with FCTC. Surveillance of both tobacco control activities and the tobacco industry activities is needed | |
| Interventions aimed at health care system | Research on how to incorporate cessation within national health care systems especially at the primary care level | |
| • Networking and leadership | Creation of virtual networks | Efficient knowledge transfer through networks such as the Global Tobacco Research Network are cost effective and provide essential tobacco control information to large numbers of researchers and advocates |
| Training to develop skills in advocacy, research, policy and programme implementation and evaluation | Efficient methods to train the next generation of tobacco control experts are needed. These can include training centres and the use of distance education and other web based methods to disseminate information | |
| Preparing new leaders for tobacco control | Identify knowledge, skills and abilities required to assume leadership roles in tobacco control as well as investigate new methods to provide training and mentorship |