We propose an interdisciplinary research conference involving key international researchers in both smoking cessation and TB control for Winter 2009. This conference will include clinicians (pulmonologists, infectious disease specialists, and nurses), epidemiologists, global health specialists, and tobacco control experts. The program plan is designed around transdisciplinary themes that are of greatest relevance to conducting smoking cessation research in TB treatment programs. The translational implications of this research are considerable in that smoking cessation may prove to be both effective and critical in reducing the impact of TB among low income populations, where the disease burdens of both tobacco use and TB are rising. There really is little interaction between TB and tobacco control researchers and program implementers globally, and thus the main purposes of this conference are: 1. To bring together US and international researchers and participants from multiple disciplines who can develop new approaches to reduce the combined impact of tobacco use and TB;2. To provide a training experience for graduate, postdoctoral students, and young investigators in the transdsiciplinary area of tobacco and TB control;3. To develop a research agenda on smoking cessation within TB programs, focusing on high risk and high need groups in low- and middle-income countries.
This proposed research conference will be co-sponsored by San Diego State University's Graduate School of Public Health and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It will present critical data on the health impacts of the combined global epidemics of tobacco use and tuberculosis. Further, it will present a transdisciplinary research agenda to address tobacco control within tuberculosis programs.
