Overcoming barriers to disseminate effective smoking cessation treatments globally

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the barriers in the dissemination of effective smoking cessation treatments and services globally. Offering tobacco users help to stop using tobacco is a key demand reduction measure outlined under Article 14 of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Implementing Article 14 can reap great dividends for the billion plus tobacco users around the world and their families, friends and societies. Design/methodology/approach A review of the status of the global implementation of Article 14 using available literature on smoking cessation products, services and national guidelines. Discussing innovative approaches being currently explored in South Asia that can lead to faster adoption and implementation of Article 14 globally. Findings Major gaps remain in cessation products’ availability and resource allocation for cessation services globally. Current licensed products are falling short on delivering and sustaining smoking cessation. Innovation in cessation products and services needs to build on learnings in nicotine pharmacokinetics, behavioural insights from consumer research and tap into 21st century tools such as mobile based apps. National implementation of FCTC’s Article 14 needs to follow guidelines that encourage integration into existing health programmes and health-care practitioners’ (HCPs) upskilling. Originality/value Smoking cessation is a desirable health outcome and nicotine replacement products are a means of achieving cessation through tobacco harm reduction. E-cigarettes are sophisticated nicotine replacement products. Innovation is urgently needed to fill the gaps in smoking cessation products and services, and for converting global policy into local practice. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), HCPs’ knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding tobacco use and cessation may hold the key to rapidly scaling up cessation support and delivery to achieve FCTC objectives sooner. Additionally, HCPs can play an important role in offering smoking cessation support in existing national health programmes for TB, cancer screening and maternal and child health. Also, widely prevalent smartphone devices may deliver smoking cessation through telemedicine in LMICs sooner, leapfrogging the hurdles of the existing health-care infrastructure.

Paying lip service to publication ethics: scientific publishing practices and the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

“…66 Sudhanshu Patwardhan, co-founder of FSFW grantee CHRE, a medical doctor who worked for British American Tobacco (BAT) between 2005 and 2019 65 was both guest editor of the special issue 58 and first author of a paper in it. 67 Despite the publisher's policy that authors, reviewers and editors must all report possible conflicts of interest, 60 Patwardhan's paper did not mention his previous employment with BAT (though it does disclose FSFW funding of CHRE). Nor is there a public statement of the conflicts of interest in relation to his editorial role -his funding from FSFW, recent history of employment with BAT, and that his business partner and co-founder of CHRE authored one of the papers 63 in the special issue.…”

“…85 In relation to the Drugs and Alcohol Today (DAT) special issue detailed in case study three, on 26 February 2021, after being alerted to our paper as a result of a press release, the journal's publishers, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, added an 'expression of concern' to all nine articles in the special issue, stating that 'credible concerns have been raised regarding the editorial process' of the articles and that investigation is ongoing. [86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94] On the same day (over a year after its submission to the journal), one of the papers in the special issue also had an erratum added to say that it 'was not published with a funding acknowledgement, which was supplied at submission'. 92 While the added 'acknowledgement' did mention FSFW as funder of both the 'Centre of Research Excellence: Indigenous Sovereignty and Smoking' and the Centre for Health Research and Education, it did not mention that FSFW is wholly funded by a tobacco corporation.…”

Divine Tobacco: A Paradox Among Health Fascism

“…Therefore, quitting smoking is a desirable health outcome (Patwardhan & Rose, 2020). Both preventions of smoking initiation among adolescents and smoking cessation among established smokers are vital in reducing smoking prevalence and associated adverse health consequences (Kalkhoran et al, 2018).…”

Accelerating an end to smoking: a call to action on the eve of the FCTC’s COP9

“…In particular, we must embrace empathetic tactics that encourage individual smokers to quit or switchincluding the use of harm reduction products (HRPs). Over the past decade, a spectrum of HRPs have emerged (Shapiro, 2018;Abrams et al, 2018;Patwardhan and Rose, 2020;McNeill et al, 2020); and they all reflect a simple observation made decades ago by Michael Russel: "people smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar" (Russell, 1976).…”

“…Although promising research in this field is underway, innovation must be expedited. In addition to the development of new treatment options, better training among healthcare professionals, particularly in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) is needed (Patwardhan and Rose, 2020).…”