Capacity Building for Tobacco Control in Tunisia, North Africa & Middle East

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DESCRIPTION): The potential to save lives globally through cessation initiatives has been well documented. By the year 2020, if adult consumption were to decrease by 50%, approximately 180 million tobacco related deaths could be avoided. In addition to having immediate potential for saving lives, cessation support is a relatively noncontroversial foot-in-the-door for other tobacco control initiatives and is very timely in light of adoption of guidelines for implementatio of Article 14 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. There is a major gap between written cessation guidelines and effective implementation. The current proposal will address this gap and will seek to build capacity in Tunisia, a country with a substantial tobacco burden. Tunisia recently ratified the FCTC and is strategically located to reach countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East. We will work through our existing partnership on chronic disease prevention and will leverage resources within the center of excellence for research and prevention of chronic disease in Sousse, Tunisia. Our specific aims include engaging our Tunisian colleagues in formative research including focus groups, surveys, and pilot studies with health professionals and tobacco users and providing multidisciplinary training to health professionals through workshops offered initially for those in Sousse and followed by workshops for national and regional audiences. Our long-term goal is to develop in Sousse an established multidisciplinary training program to increase capacity for implementation of Article 14 in the region and to inform Article 14 implementation more broadly. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The current project meets the goals of the Funding Opportunity Announcement by addressing the critical problem of tobacco cessation through a collaborative multidisciplinary approach that will also build capacity through training of faculty colleagues and through a series of workshops targeted at health professionals. This program of research will help to address the gap between written cessation guidelines and effective implementation.