Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions

ABSTRACTIt has been argued that the preponderance of studies into individual smoking cessation therapies seems grossly out of proportion to the number of people who use these therapies to quit smoking, and that this imbalance is due to factors such as the role of the pharmaceutical industry in fundi...

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Main Authors: Lawrence, David, Mitrou, F., Zubrick, Stephen
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03451.x/pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/25723
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author Lawrence, David
Mitrou, F.
Zubrick, Stephen
author_facet Lawrence, David
Mitrou, F.
Zubrick, Stephen
author_sort Lawrence, David
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description ABSTRACTIt has been argued that the preponderance of studies into individual smoking cessation therapies seems grossly out of proportion to the number of people who use these therapies to quit smoking, and that this imbalance is due to factors such as the role of the pharmaceutical industry in funding research and a general bias towards individual- rather than population-based approaches to medical and health problems. We believe that there are other significant factors that affect the balance of research in smoking cessation, such as the higher standards of evidence required to justify the implementation of individual medical therapies compared with population-based interventions. We argue that research practitioners in the area of population tobacco control are well placed to address this imbalance by setting more rigorous standards of evidence for population health interventions. This could be achieved by setting aside a small proportion of funds from population health and advocacy activities to invest in studying their effectiveness. We believe that this would potentially return information of sufficient value to justify increasing overall population investment beyond the cost of the additional research component. Additional benefits would be gained from increased research in this area, such as better understanding of how to translate tobacco control initiatives to developing countries with high smoking rates, and how to target disadvantaged and marginalized populations more effectively in developed countries that continue to have high rates of smoking and low rates of smoking cessation, despite the existence of broad population-based strategies.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-257232019-02-19T04:27:06Z Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions Lawrence, David Mitrou, F. Zubrick, Stephen smoking cessation preventive medicine mental illness tobacco control public health Evidence-based medicine ABSTRACTIt has been argued that the preponderance of studies into individual smoking cessation therapies seems grossly out of proportion to the number of people who use these therapies to quit smoking, and that this imbalance is due to factors such as the role of the pharmaceutical industry in funding research and a general bias towards individual- rather than population-based approaches to medical and health problems. We believe that there are other significant factors that affect the balance of research in smoking cessation, such as the higher standards of evidence required to justify the implementation of individual medical therapies compared with population-based interventions. We argue that research practitioners in the area of population tobacco control are well placed to address this imbalance by setting more rigorous standards of evidence for population health interventions. This could be achieved by setting aside a small proportion of funds from population health and advocacy activities to invest in studying their effectiveness. We believe that this would potentially return information of sufficient value to justify increasing overall population investment beyond the cost of the additional research component. Additional benefits would be gained from increased research in this area, such as better understanding of how to translate tobacco control initiatives to developing countries with high smoking rates, and how to target disadvantaged and marginalized populations more effectively in developed countries that continue to have high rates of smoking and low rates of smoking cessation, despite the existence of broad population-based strategies. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/25723 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03451.x/pdf Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. restricted
spellingShingle smoking cessation
preventive medicine
mental illness
tobacco control
public health
Evidence-based medicine
Lawrence, David
Mitrou, F.
Zubrick, Stephen
Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions
title Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions
title_full Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions
title_fullStr Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions
title_full_unstemmed Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions
title_short Global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions
title_sort global research neglect of population-based approaches to smoking cessation: time for a more rigorous science of population health interventions
topic smoking cessation
preventive medicine
mental illness
tobacco control
public health
Evidence-based medicine
url http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03451.x/pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/25723