From knowledge production to knowledge translation: Waterpipe tobacco control research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Dina Farran; Ramzi G Salloum; Fadi El Jardali; Ruba Abla; Niveen Abu Rmeileh; Nihaya Al Sheyab; Sameera Awaw-da; Ali Chalak; Mohammed Jawad; Yousef Khader; Aya Mostafa; Rima Nakkash

doi:10.18332/tpc/175953

From knowledge production to knowledge translation: Waterpipe tobacco control research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Tob Prev Cessat. 2024 Jan 19:10. doi: 10.18332/tpc/175953. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Dina Farran¹, Ramzi G Salloum², Fadi El Jardali³, Ruba Abla⁴, Niveen Abu Rmeileh⁵, Nihaya Al Sheyab⁶, Sameera Awaw-da^{5

7}, Ali Chalak⁸, Mohammed Jawad⁹, Yousef Khader¹⁰, Aya Mostafa¹¹, Rima Nakkash^{4

12}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
² Department of Health Outcomes & Biomedical Informatics, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
³ Health Management and Policy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
⁴ Department of Health Promotion and Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
⁵ Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine.
⁶ Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
⁷ Economics Department, Faculty of Business and Economics, Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine.
⁸ Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
⁹ Public Health Policy Evaluation Unit, Imperial College London School of Public Health, London, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Community Medicine, Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
¹¹ Department of Community, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
¹² Global and Community Health Department, George Mason University, Virginia, USA.

Abstract

Waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) rates in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) are the highest worldwide, particularly among young people. Although fiscal policies to curb tobacco use have been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), implementation has been suboptimal. The Eastern Mediterranean Consortium on the Economics of Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking (ECON-WTS) was formed in response to this need to produce knowledge on the economics of WTS in the EMR and apply a comprehensive Knowledge translation (KT) framework. The KT framework comprised priority setting, evidence synthesis, knowledge translation, and knowledge uptake. In this article, we discuss the approaches followed in applying the KT framework to WTS control, providing examples and noting challenges and lessons learned where possible.

Keywords: health policy; knowledge translation; public health; tobacco control; waterpipe.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

FUNDING This research was supported by the International Development Research Center (Grant number: 108821)