research to policymakers
Two grants totaling $1.65 million from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will allow the Center for Nicotine and Tobacco Use Research at Yale (CENTURY) to conduct research on tobacco-related policy issues and to communicate their findings.
The research will provide a basis for developing public and private policies regarding tobacco control, according to Jody L. Sindelar, associate professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH) at the School of Medicine.
"The communications unit will help us to make our findings known to policy-makers, smokers and other decision-makers," she says. "Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's emphasis on communication paired with research is quite rare in the funding world. This will increase the chances that our work will have impact."
Yale investigators and Sindelar, who specializes in applying economic principles to health issues, will undertake three main projects as part of the RWJF grant. One project will analyze the impact of smoking on worker productivity. Another will conduct an economic evaluation of a new smoking cessation treatment being developed at CENTURY, and a third project will examine the role that life changes have on decisions for older individuals to quit smoking.
Tracy Falba, a co-principal investigator on the grant, emphasizes the importance of studying this group of older smokers. "As people age, the effects of smoking become more prevalent," she says. "Because of this and other life changes, older individuals may find new motivation to quit smoking. Importantly, even at older ages, the benefits to quitting can be immense. This research will help to get policies and treatments in place to improve the health of the elderly."
CENTURY was formed through a collaboration of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Cancer Institute (NCI) and RWJF.
The center's research ranges from basic science and clinical trials to policy and communications. For example, the study of productivity will rely on information gained from animal and imaging studies to better understand the pathways through which nicotine affects the brain and therefore productivity.
Sindelar's current research interests focus on economic issues of substance abuse. Specifically, she has analyzed topics such as lost productivity associated with alcoholism, crime and illicit drugs, and drug treatment as social policy. She has several other ongoing studies funded by NIDA. Sindelar is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
EPH at Yale provides leadership to protect and improve the health of the public -- both locally and throughout the world -- through innovative research, policy analysis and education.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. Its mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans. One of the foundation's four grant-making priorities is to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse -- including tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.
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