Progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to noncommunicable diseases requires concerted action to end adult smoking. The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (hereafter...
Years ago, at a global health research meeting, I remember one of the speakers complaining that researchers from high-income countries often “behave like a flock of seagulls” when working in low- and middle-income countries. She explained, “We have an ethical obligation not...
The value of peers in research is their lived experience…[and their potential] to identify emerging themes that to researchers may be simply ‘lost in the noise’, and further analysis can provide novel avenues for investigation which otherwise might be missed.
In other words, whether scientists are studying users or the products used, they should welcome vapers as “peers.” They should listen and try to understand vapers’ stories and learn what research questions are most important to them. This imperative echoes the effective...
Research strategies which emphasize participation are increasingly used in health research. Breaking the linear mould of conventional research, participatory research focuses on a process of sequential reflection and action, carried out with and by local people rather...
Today, participatory research and community engagement are far more common in global health research. When I served as Director of Child Health at the Optimus Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, almost all of our 100+ grants supported community-based, participatory child...
A new year begins with resolutions. For more than three decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) has pledged to end smoking. Tobacco kills more than seven million people annually. Most are in developing countries. Each death is one too many. We have an unprecedented opportunity to give global tobacco control new energy and a new path. This requires courage, creativity, and the ability to seize opportunities as we strive to end smoking together
A recent study by Murray DM et al., published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, aimed to provide an analysis of the level of NIH support for primary and secondary prevention research in humans by field and stage of research. The study was conducted between 2012 and 2017 and included all 27 Institutes and Centers at the NIH that collaborate with the Office of Disease Prevention (ODP). This study followed an earlier one by Calitz C et al. that was published in 2015 in the same journal. Calitz et al. presented the first comprehensive analysis of the NIH’s prevention portfolio over 3 years (2010–2012) for human behavioral interactions aimed at preventing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), although they included only eight of the 27 Institutes and Centers
As 2018 ends, let’s take stock of whether we are making real progress in ending smoking. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that there are still more than 1 billion smokers in the world today, and more than 7 million lives are prematurely claimed by smoking-related cancer, heart disease, and lung disease. Combustible cigarettes and certain forms of toxic smokeless tobacco products together remain the largest preventable cause of premature deaths globally. The stakes remain unacceptably high