Welcome to the Spring 2007 ATOD Section Newsletter which focuses on evidence-based practice, in addition to our regular updates!  I hope you’re all doing great and enjoying the summer by the time you read this.  Regardless of the focus of our specific work, we’re all trying to ensure that the programs, policies and interventions that we’re pursuing in the alcohol, tobacco and other drug fields, are based on the latest available evidence to ensure that we have the greatest public health impact.  This issue of our newsletter will give you several resources or tools that you’ll find useful in your work.  Feel free to follow up, check out relevant Web sites, or reach out and contact your colleagues who are mentioned as resources.

I’d like to call your attention to several resources that I think will help in your work:

1)  The Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T. (Plan, Link, Act, Network with Evidence-based Tools) is a Web portal that provides access to data and research-tested resources that can help tobacco control planners, program staff, and researchers design, implement, and evaluate evidence-based tobacco control programs. Click here for more information or go to http://cancercontrolplanet.cancer.gov/.  For more information, you can also contact:

Cynthia A. Vinson, MPA
Dissemination and Diffusion Coordinator
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute
Telephone: 301-594-5906
Fax: 301-594-6787
E-mail: cvinson@mail.nih.gov

2)  Another Web site you might find useful is “Health Behavior Constructs:  Theory, Measurement and Research” at http://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/constructs.   This Web site provides definitions of major theoretical constructs employed in health behavior research, and information about the best measures of these constructs.  This resource is designed for health behavior researchers in public health, health communications, nursing, psychology, and related fields.   This Web site is designed to provide:

·         Definitions of major health behavior constructs used in research in public health, health communications, nursing and health psychology;

·         Common measures used to assess these constructs; and

·         Descriptions of the construct’s theoretical backgrounds.

The goals of this Web site are to:

·         Advance theory-based basic and intervention research by providing common definitions, measures, and language;

·         Increase consistency in applying theoretical constructs;

·         Facilitate transdisciplinary discussions;

·         Allow researchers to more easily incorporate theory testing and development into research; and

·         Allow applied researchers and students to make comparisons of major theoretical elements.

3)  Another great resource that’s been around a while, and with which you may already be familiar, is The Guide to Community Preventive Services which addresses the prevention of alcohol, tobacco and other drug problems, located at: http://www.thecommunityguide.org  The Guide to Community Preventive Services serves as a filter for scientific literature on specific health problems that can be large, inconsistent, uneven in quality, and even inaccessible.  The Community Guide is a tool I’ve referenced often because it summarizes what is known about the effectiveness, economic efficiency, and feasibility of interventions to promote community health and prevent disease. The Task Force on Community Preventive Services makes recommendations for the use of various interventions based on the evidence gathered in the rigorous and systematic scientific reviews of published studies conducted by the review teams of the Community Guide. The findings from the reviews are published in peer-reviewed journals and also made available on this Internet Web site.

4)  Finally, my column wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention the new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation just released last month.  As do most IOM reports, this one is sure to have a major impact on the field of tobacco control research, policy and practice.  It was written and edited by an outstanding group of tobacco control and public health professionals.  The National Academies summary page for the report with several relevant links is:  http://www.national-academies.org/morenews/20070524a.html  The online version of report is available at:  http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11795#toc

I think the bottom line is that this is a very important report that is calling for the field to increase adoption of what we already know works in tobacco control policy, including: comprehensive tobacco control programs, significant tax increases, comprehensive clean air laws covering the entire country, significant restrictions on marketing and youth access (including restricting the number of retailers that sell the products and requiring all to be licensed), providing broad regulatory authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including the authority to reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes, and requiring all public and private health insurers to provide coverage of smoking cessation as a lifetime benefit.   The report recommends that the Federal government play a much larger role in antismoking efforts and an increased commitment by States and localities to implement policies that have been proven to be effective.

Lest you think I spent lots of time crafting pithy prose about the projects and Web sites I’ve mentioned above, if you investigate them, you’ll see that I’ve taken the language directly from the resources.  I wouldn’t want to be compared to public officials in Washington, D.C. who “borrowed” their plan for reorganizing the school system from their friends and colleagues in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, North Carolina!

As usual, I’m happy to invite you to get more involved in our Section.  Feel free to contact any of our Section Leaders listed at the end of the newsletter, depending on your particular interests or expertise, or any of the individuals listed in the following articles—we’d all be glad to hear from you and get your help on our respective initiatives.  If you have an issue or topic that’s particularly important to you and you think should be on the radar screen of the ATOD Section and isn’t yet, feel free to call me at 301-496-0275.  I’ll be glad to hear from you and discuss how we can advance the issues by working together. 

Take it Easy & Enjoy Life!
Bob Vollinger
ATOD Chair