Proposed Title:
Methodological Developments in Tobacco
Control Evaluation and Research
Brief Description:
Those evaluating tobacco control programs and those designing, conducting and analyzing results from tobacco control intervention studies are faced with many methodological problems, including the choice of comparison groups, sample size considerations, the collection of valid and reliable data, methods to improve response rates and reduce loss-to-follow-up, dealing with missing data, and modelling data collected from multiple levels.
This five-hour working session will be held in two parts over one day.
During Part 1, invited speakers will discuss the following topics:
- The role of observational studies and "natural" experiments in the evaluation of tobacco control programs. .
- Recent advances in the analysis of longitudinal data with missing values.
- Recent advances in multi-level modelling with reference to tobacco control.
During Part 2, the invited speakers will join other experts in evaluation and research methods to conduct an open consulting forum during which participants will discuss and receive input on their own design and analysis challenges.
The main output of this session will be the development of tools and resources for a range of evaluation and research methods issues. The exact format of these tools and resources will be discussed by the session participants.
Proposed Title:
Challenges in Tobacco Control Evaluation
Brief Description:
There is increasing demand for evaluation of Tobacco Control programs, policies and strategies. Preliminary observation suggests that evaluators face considerable challenges in delivering products that make significant
contributions to achieving Tobacco Control objectives.
This ten hour session will be held over the course of two days. Discussants will encourage dialogue on each paper to help authors in preparing final papers to submit for publication.
This session aims to stimulate frank discussion about the challenges faced by evaluators in evaluating tobacco control interventions and strategies. Authors are encouraged to explore a broad spectrum of challenges, including
those related to politics, resources, time, utilization, evaluability, access to data, methodology and determination of causality. Description and analysis of successful and less successful efforts to meet these challenges are welcome. Contributions should be rooted in the evaluation literature.
The expected outcome of this session is an edited volume or special issue of a journal. Contributors are required to produce a paper of approximately 2,500 words one month prior to the conference. Each paper will be assigned
a discussant, who will lead discussion of up to one hour to improve the quality of the paper for submission to external peer review.
Proposed Title:
Developing a Research Agenda for Tobacco
Product Regulatory Science: An Expert Panel Consensus Statement
Brief Description:
The past few years have seen the implementation of tobacco product regulatory initiatives in Canada and abroad. However, there is limited knowledge of tobacco science outside the tobacco industry. There is a pressing need to develop the evidence base in this area so that governments and other regulators can take effective, steps to reduce the harm from tobacco products. The purpose of the proposed working session is to bring together Canadian and international experts on tobacco product science and regulation to develop a research agenda focused on these products. Prior to the working session, a background document will be prepared that describes the state of the evidence as well as major gaps. Draft recommendations for a research agenda will be included. The background document will be circulated to expert panel members in advance of the working session.
This ten-hour expert panel meeting will be held over two days. During Day 1, the background document will be presented, discussed and debated. Day 2 will be used for refining and finalizing the research agenda.
The main outputs of this two-day expert panel meeting will be: (1) a research agenda for tobacco product regulatory science; (2) a background document to be published as an OTRU Special Report; and (3) a manuscript outlining the research agenda that will be submitted for publication to a peer reviewed journal.
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