TReND issues International Call for Papers on the role of social stratification in global tobacco-related inequalities

Background

The Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND) was created by the National Cancer Institute and the Legacy Foundation to increase our understanding and address tobacco-related health disparities by advancing the science, translating that scientific knowledge into practice, and informing public policy.

On March 8, 2009, TReND held a pre-conference workshop at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health titled, Research to Reduce Tobacco-Related Inequalities: Worldwide Implications for and Exemplars of Tobacco Control, in Mumbai, India. The goals of the workshop were to:

1. increase understanding of how systems of social stratification (e.g., gender, social class, race/ethnicity, etc.) are defined in various countries and implications for tobacco control
2. provide examples of outcomes resulting from tobacco-related inequalities (e.g., illness, mortality, etc.)
3. demonstrate measurement and research design strategies used to address tobacco-related inequalities
4. share exemplar interventions addressing tobacco-related inequalities.

As follow-up to the workshop, TReND is working with Cancer Causes and Control (http://www.springer.com/biomed/cancer/journal/10552) to issue an international call for papers to further address the role of social stratification in tobacco-related inequalities. Initial manuscript submissions are due April 18, 2011.

Research Questions

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco is the world’s leading cause of preventable death and disease. By 2030, WHO estimates that 8 million people will prematurely die from tobacco use each year with 80% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries¹. Systems of social stratification such as gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geography and caste have been shown to be important determinants of tobacco-related inequalities.

Broadly defined, tobacco-related inequalities are conceptualized as the differences in the patterns and treatment of tobacco use; the risk, incidence, morbidity, and mortality of tobacco-related illness; and the related differences in community capacity and infrastructure, access to resources and secondhand smoke exposure that exist among specific population groups. Tobacco-related inequalities occur along the entire tobacco use continuum including initiation, current use, consumption, cessation, relapse, level of dependence, and psychosocial and societal resources.

While research sheds light on some of these inequalities, there are many challenges in attempting to unravel the effects of social stratification on tobacco-related outcomes. Selected papers will address one or more of the following research questions:

1. How do different social stratification systems, such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, caste, region, tribe, SES, etc., contribute to tobacco-related inequalities, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries?
2. What valid and reliable constructs and tools are being used to measure the role of social stratification in tobacco-related inequalities?
3. What types of interventions and policies have been conducted and evaluated at the individual and population-based levels that have potential to reduce tobacco-related inequalities?
   

TReND will consider papers that report original research, conceptual or theoretical papers, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews. Due to the rapidly increasing epidemic of tobacco use in low- and middle-income countries, priority will be given to papers that address these research questions in countries defined by the World Bank as low-income, lower-middle-income, and upper-middle-income.

Instructions

Please submit your manuscript by April 18, 2011 to Allison Rose
( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Manuscripts should not exceed 3500 words and may include up to 4 tables and figures. Please follow the recommended style of Cancer Causes and Control (http://www.springer.com/biomed/cancer/journal/10552). The editorial team, led by Drs. Eliseo Perez-Stable (University of California, San Francisco) and K. “Vish” Viswanath (Harvard School of Public Health), will conduct an internal review and notify authors of the outcome by May 23, 2011. Authors will then be asked to revise and resubmit the manuscript by June 6, 2011. Please address any questions to Dr. Eliseo Perez-Stable ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Dr. Vish Viswanath ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

1 The Tobacco Atlas, Third Edition (2009). American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation. Available at: http://www.tobaccoatlas.org/.