Tobacco Control Capacity Programme: building capacity for applied research to reduce tobacco-related harm in low and middle income countries

Improving research capacity in Low and Middle Income Countries to conduct high quality studies that will generate evidence on how to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by tobacco use, and to advance key development priorities.

Summary (Research in a nutshell)

Overview

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the world. Globally, smoking kills more people every year than HIV, tuberculosis and malaria combined. By 2030, more than 80% of the world's tobacco-related deaths will occur in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Preventing people from starting to use tobacco, and encouraging users to stop, is a global priority.

The programme will be undertaken in two parts of the world (South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa) where progress on tobacco control has not always been good, and where the tobacco industry is active in attempting to undermine measures that work. The grant will build research capacity in several LMICs, through funding for in-country senior researchers and post-doctoral scholars who will undertake research designed to address local priorities in each country, supported by a programme of training in research methods and public and policy engagement.

Aims

The overall aim of the programme is to improve research capacity in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) to conduct high quality studies that will generate evidence on how to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by tobacco use and to advance key development priorities.

In doing this we will draw on an established framework for building research capacity 1 that has six main elements:

Co-creation of research close to practice
Infrastructures
Skills and confidence-building
Linkages and collaborations
Actionable dissemination
Sustainability

Objectives

Develop a consortium of partners led by the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, a UKCRC Centre of Excellence. UKCTAS will collaborate with Research Organisations in LMICs in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, along with Cancer Research UK's International Tobacco Control Programme. The team will be supported by a range of organisations and funders (Linkages and collaboration).
Establish and train a cohort of post-doctoral fellows in the participating LMIC Centres. Additional research capacity will be developed in UK Universities with research fellows supporting the programme (Infrastructure)
Develop new studies focused on tobacco control through a process of co-creation of research topics, data collection approaches and plans for dissemination undertaken between participating academics, government and NGO partners in each LMIC country (Co-creation of research closer to practice)
Apply findings from these new studies to inform the implementation of effective tobacco control measures (reducing the demand for, and supply of, tobacco products) in each LMIC, in the UK and other countries (Actionable dissemination)
Invest in wider stakeholder engagement (for example, Ministries of Health and Finance) throughout to identify pathways to impact and future options for the sustainability of the programme (Linkages, collaboration and sustainability)

Key people

Name	Role
Professor Linda Bauld	Principal Investigator\| University of Edinburgh
Dr Monika Arora	Co-investigator\| HRIDAY, India
Professor John Britton	Co-investigator\| University of Nottingham
Professor Jeff Collin	Co-investigator\| University of Edinburgh
Professor Umberto D’Alessandro	Co-investigator\| MRC Gambia @ LSHTM, The Gambia
Professor Wakgari Deressa	Co-investigator\| Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Professor Andrew Fogarty	Co-investigator\| University of Nottingham
Professor Anna Gilmore	Co-investigator\| University of Bath
Professor Rumana Huque	Co-investigator\| The ARK Foundation, Bangladesh
Professor Muralidhar Kulkarni	Co-investigator\| Manipa Academy of Higher Education, India
Professor Ann McNeill	Co-investigator\| Kings College London
Ms Kellen Nyamurungi	Co-investigator\| Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda
Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo	Co-investigator\| Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Dr Steve Parrott	Co-investigator\| University of York
Professor Kamran Siddiqi	Co-investigator\| University of York
Professor Corne Van Walbeek	Co-investigator\| The University of Cape Town, South Africa
Amy O'Neill	Research Project Manager\| University of Edinburgh

Contact

Research Project Manager: Amy.O'Neill@ed.ac.uk

Follow the programme on twitter @GCRF_TCCP

Website

Tobacco Control Capacity Programme website

Key publications

Journal articles

Dobbie, F., Mdege, N., Davidson, F., Siddiqi, K., Collin, J., Huque, R., Owusudabo, E., van Walbeek, C. and Bauld, L., 2019. Building capacity for applied research to reduce tobacco-related harm in low- and middle-income countries: the Tobacco Control Capacity Programme (TCCP). Journal of Global Health Reports, 3. Available from: http://joghr.org/Article/joghr-03-e2019055
Siddiqi, K., Siddiqui, F., Khan, A., Ansaari, S., Kanaan, M., Khokhar, M., Islam, Z., Mishu, M. and Bauld, L., 2020. The impact of COVID-19 on smoking patterns in Pakistan: findings from a longitudinal survey of smokers. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntaa207
Abdullah, S., Huque, R., Bauld, L., Ross, H., Gilmore, A., John, R., Dobbie, F. and Siddiqi, K., 2020. Estimating the Magnitude of Illicit Cigarette Trade in Bangladesh: Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(13), p.4791. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134791
Singh, A., Okello, G., Semple, S., Dobbie, F., Kinnunen, T., Lartey, K., Logo, D., Bauld, L., Ankrah, S., McNeill, A. and Owusu-Dabo, E., 2020. Exposure to secondhand smoke in hospitality settings inGhana: Evidence of changes since implementation of smoke-freelegislation. Tobacco Induced Diseases, 18(May). Available from: https://doi.org/10.18332/tid/12093

Policy briefs

Some teams from TCCP collaborated on a short-term project designed to meet an urgent need for evidence on public health responses and tobacco control in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This project was supported by a grant from the UK Global Challenges Research Fund, grant number MR/P027946/2 with additional funding from the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Funding Council Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) allocation. Below is a list of policy briefs produced as an output of this programme:

Hirpa, S., Deressa, W., Getachew, S., Addissie, A., Davidson, F., Dobbie, F. and Bauld, L., 2020. Covid-19 And Tobacco - Policy Brief Report - Ethiopia. [online] University of Edinburgh. Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/covid19_and_tobacco_briefing_-_ethiopia.pdf
Kanan, S., Huque, R., Davidson, F., Dobbie, F. and Bauld L., Covid-19 And Tobacco - Policy Brief Report - Bangladesh. [online] University of Edinburgh. Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/covid19andtobacco_briefing_bangladesh.pdf
Islam, Z., Khan, A., Davidson, F., Dobbie, F. and Bauld L., Covid-19 And Tobacco - Policy Brief Report - Pakistan. [online] University of Edinburgh. Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/covid19_and_tobacco_briefing_-_pakistan.pdf
Logo, D., Owusu-Dabo, E., Singh, A., Davidson, F., Dobbie, F. and Bauld L., Covid-19 And Tobacco - Policy Brief Report - Ghana. [online] University of Edinburgh. Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/covid19_and_tobacco_briefing_-_ghana.pdf
Nyamurungi, K., Kabwama, S., Davidson, F., Dobbie, F. and Bauld L., Covid-19 And Tobacco - Policy Brief Report - Uganda. [online] University of Edinburgh. Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/covid19_and_tobacco_briefing_-_uganda.pdf

All briefs are available from COVID-19 and Tobacco project page

Partners

This project is led by the Usher Institute, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh.

This project includes the following partners in the UK:

School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Department of Health Sciences, University of York
University of Nottingham
University of Bath
Kings College London
Cancer Research UK

This project includes the following partners in low and middle income countries:

ARK Foundation, Bangladesh
Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
HRIDAY, Delhi, India
Public Health Foundation of India
Manipal Academy of Health and Education, Manipal, India
Makarere School of Public Health, Makarere University, Uganda
Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP), University of Cape Town, South Africa
MRC Unit @LSHTM, The Gambia
Aga Khan University and the National Tobacco Control Cell, Ministry of Health, Pakistan