The role of research in international tobacco control

Abstract

The future of the tobacco-produced disease epidemic rests in low- and middle-income countries, where cigarette sales are growing-the result of rising incomes, trade liberalization, liberalization of the treatment of women, and the introduction of Western-style advertising. Research on disease causation, epidemiology, and educational and policy interventions has contributed significantly to reducing smoking rates in developed countries. A similar contribution is needed in less affluent nations, but severe challenges are involved in implementing a robust research program in such countries. In an attempt to understand these challenges and begin to conceptualize an approach to overcoming them, I examine the need for and methods to achieve a program of meaningful research on tobacco and health, as well as health policy, in the developing world.

FIGURE 1—

The traditional continuum from basic research to standard practice (top) and the modified version of the continuum (bottom).