© 2004 American Public Health Association
Pebbles Fagan is with the Tobacco Control Research Branch, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Gary King is with the Department of Behavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, State College. Deirdre Lawrence is with the Risk Factor Monitoring and Methods Branch, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. Sallie Anne Petrucci is with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ. Robert G. Robinson is with the Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga. David Banks is with Health, Evaluation & Learning Professionals, Washington, DC. Sharon Marable is with the Division of Disease Prevention and Control, State of Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence. Rachel Grana is with MasiMax Resources Inc, Rockville, Md. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Pebbles Fagan, PhD, MPH, Tobacco Control Research Branch, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Executive Plaza North, Room 4042, 6130 Executive Blvd MSC 7337, Bethesda, MD 20892-7337 (e-mail: faganp{at}mail.nih.gov).
Certain groups in the United States remain at high risk and suffer disproportionately from tobacco-related illness and death despite progress made in reducing tobacco use. To address gaps in research on tobacco-related disparities and develop a comprehensive agenda aimed at reducing such disparities, representatives from funding agencies, community-based organizations, and academic institutions convened at the National Conference on Tobacco and Health Disparities in 2002. Conference participants reviewed the current research, identified existing gaps, and prioritized scientific recommendations. Panel discussions were organized to address research areas affecting underserved and understudied populations. We report major research recommendations made by the conference participants in several scientific domains. These recommendations will ultimately help guide the field in reducing and eliminating tobacco-related disparities in the United States.
ACCORDING TO THE 2000 surgeon generals report Reducing Tobacco Use, eliminating health disparities related to tobacco use is a major public health challenge.1 Members of racial/ethnic minority groups, individuals of low socioeconomic status, and other groups remain at high risk for tobacco use and suffer disproportionately from tobacco-related illness and death.24 Health disparities exist within and between populations, and little is known about the causes of population differences observed in exposure and susceptibility to, and the consequences of, tobacco use, addiction, and related diseases. Consequently, the evidence base for designing and implementing effective prevention and cessation interventions aimed at understudied and historically underserved populations in the United States is limited. Additional scientific investigation is needed to identify optimal entry points to address health inequities and to understand how to interrupt increasing disparities among certain populations. The challenge of eliminating disparities requires concerted efforts by scientists, health professionals, policymakers, and others to address inequities in health as well as to amend the scientific research agenda. Such efforts will help to raise critical questions that will generate empirical data, identify action steps for research, and facilitate the development of strategic plans and interventions to address tobacco-related disparities in present and future initiatives. Few efforts to date have systematically addressed research initiatives for populations in which disparities are present or have identified key scientific domains upon which to base future inquiry. The National Conference on Tobacco and Health Disparities (NCTHD), held in December 2002, represented the first scientific gathering to convene researchers and practitioners to review the current research, identify gaps, and develop a research agenda to eliminate tobacco-related health disparities. Collaborators who supported and developed the meeting content and agenda included representatives from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Legacy Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society, the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention, and the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, along with the planning committee members.
The NCTHD planning committee defined tobacco-related health disparities as follows: "differences in the patterns, prevention, and treatment of tobacco use; the risk, incidence, morbidity, mortality, and burden of tobacco-related illness that exist among specific population groups in the United States; and related differences in capacity and infrastructure, access to resources, and environmental tobacco smoke exposure." This definition was employed by conference participants from multiple disciplines to advance our understanding of tobacco-related disparities in 11 specific research domains5: epidemiology, surveillance, psychosocial, basic biology, harm reduction, marketing, policy, community and state, prevention of tobacco use, treatment of nicotine addiction, and research capacity and infrastructure (Table 1
Research in these scientific domains can contribute enormously to our understanding of tobacco use, addiction, and related diseases; help to identify interventions to reduce tobacco use; and help to determine the resources and infrastructure needed to implement interventions (Figure 1
More than 100 research recommendations focusing on high-risk, underserved, and understudied populations were generated at the NCTHD. The major recommendations are reported in Table 2
Epidemiology Epidemiology is a critical scientific domain that can greatly influence our understanding of tobacco use, addiction, and variations in disease. A 1998 report of the surgeon general, Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups, concluded that few studies have examined the relationships between tobacco use and known health effects in racial/ethnic groups, and, furthermore, few extant databases contain sufficient information to conduct the types of analyses needed.3 This general assessment also applies to other underserved and understudied groups. For example, it was not until 1980 that causal relationships between tobacco use and tobacco-related diseases were established for women.6 Cross-sectional and cohort studies of many populations are lacking or inadequately designed to answer key research questions. The Black Womens Health Study7 is one of the few empirical investigations to elucidate the associations between risk factors and disease outcomes in understudied populations. The conference participants recommendations in regard to addressing these gaps were to support the research needs of small populations, examine the sociological context of tobacco use, implement longitudinal studies, and explore the social context and factors associated with tobacco use and quitting behavior among burdened populations.
Surveillance The recommendations from conference participants were to address the needs of small populations and communities, explore study designs and methodologies, determine the appropriateness of survey measures, and address the comprehensiveness of surveillance systems.
Psychosocial Research The field is just beginning to recognize the symbiotic nature between these types of investigations, which will enable us to comprehend the complexity of interactions among individual and community factors that influence tobacco use, cessation, and relapse. Also of note is researchers tendency to operationalize psychosocial variables mainly in terms of the individual, with less focus on the community as the unit of analysis. The recommendations of the NCTHD participants were to identify risk and protective factors, develop appropriate measures for constructs, address systems issues, and examine the context of tobacco use behavior among racial/ethnic groups; immigrant populations; prison populations; the mentally ill; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations; and faith-based communities.
Basic Biology
Harm Reduction
Marketing
Policy
Community and State
Prevention of Tobacco Use
Treatment of Nicotine Addiction
Research Capacity and Infrastructure Building research infrastructure allows researchers to raise incisive questions relevant to underserved and understudied populations, work more effectively with these populations, and develop community relationships to facilitate intervention and evaluation research. The conference participants recommended that support be provided in the areas of research training and mentoring, building collaborations between communities and academic institutions, and facilitating community-based research.
Embedded in the challenge to eliminate health disparities is the need to address tobacco use and related diseases among underserved and understudied populations. Addressing each of the 11 scientific domains described here will contribute to our understanding of tobacco use and related diseases and ultimately help to identify the entry points necessary to reduce tobacco-related disparities by enhancing our collective capability to intervene in burdened populations. Many of the recommendations stemming from the NCTHD focus heavily on expanding our understanding of tobacco use, addiction, and related diseases, thus reflecting the viewpoint that the tobacco control field is minimally prepared to develop effective interventions for populations exhibiting disparities. A more solid evidence base is needed, one that involves both quantitative and qualitative data upon which to develop interventions for populations in which disparities are present. How we move forward to build this evidence base represents an additional challenge to the field. Several barriers, including limited financial resources, may affect the implementation of a research agenda on tobacco and health disparities. Many state organizations, as well as some private organizations, have eliminated or severely curtailed tobacco control programs and have diverted funds to other priority areas. If this trend continues, fewer resources will be available to reduce tobacco use and disease in underserved and understudied populations. No single organization can fully support these efforts; however, creative funding options and collaborative projects among researchers could help minimize the effects of recent changes. The recent focus on disparity-based research in public health represents a major change in conceptualizing and understanding differences in health behavior, risks, and outcomes. The viewpoint that differences in health status are linked to economic, social, and political inequalities is a fundamental aspect of this perspective. Equally important is the proposition that research on disparities demands methodologically sound scientific innovations, professional dedication, and courage. These steps partly entail acknowledging the shortcomings and inequities involved in our scientific disciplines and rethinking what we decide to study. In addition, these recommendations are intended to encourage researchers, funders, and policymakers to discuss, debate, amend, and work to meet the challenges of this research agenda. The process of collaboration between stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners, and community organizations with respect to research on disparities indicates the need for alternative viewpoints. In this regard, the work of Friere35 and others has much to offer to the proposed research agenda on tobacco-related disparities, especially concerning community perceptions about research as "another structure of domination." Thus, the proposed recommendations for a national agenda to address disparities in tobacco use and related diseases require the research community to consider novel and practical approaches to the process of conducting research focusing on tobacco prevention and control. Disparity-based research will compel investigators not only to focus on quantitative and qualitative differences between groups but to examine the underlying reasons for these differences, adopt appropriate measures and standards of comparison, address the needs of smaller populations, conduct intragroup research, and translate research findings into policy. Finally, moving forward with these recommendations requires that the research community and funding organizations allow for a certain degree of creativity and risk taking among investigators who use innovative research strategies to address tobacco-related health disparities. The trial-and-error process of using rigorous scientific standards, albeit protracted, has proven to be effective in advancing public health. In addition, the commitment to this challenge must be undergirded with the fortitude and patience to build upon conventional and long-established approaches to empirical investigations and develop new ideas and research strategies.
The National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Legacy Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and the American Cancer Society provided funding for the National Conference on Tobacco and Health Disparities. Note. This article represents the views of the authors and conference participants and does not reflect the respective policy positions of the funding agencies.
Human Participant Protection
Contributors P. Fagan summarized the recommendations, revised drafts of the article, and led the writing team. G. King and D. Lawrence contributed to the recommendation synthesis and editing of the article. S. Petrucci contributed to editing and to developing the recommendations section. R. Robinson, D. Banks, and S. Marable contributed to editing and to development of the recommendations and discussion sections. R. Grana assisted with the background research, synthesis of conference notes, and editing of the article. Accepted for publication October 6, 2003.
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