Worldwide surveillance of tobacco use and control is essential to develop and implement effective interventions to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with tobacco use. Tracking changes in tobacco use and control activities will allow for the monitoring and evaluation of interventions and justify necessary policy and programmatic adjustments. The National Tobacco Information On-line System (NATIONS) is an electronically integrated information system containing country-specific information on a wide variety of tobacco control issues. It is being developed by the Office on Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the World Health Organization-Tobacco Free Initiative (WHO-TFI), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and the World Bank (WB). NATIONS incorporates several sources of data to provide national-level information on tobacco use prevalence and smoking-related disease impact, national tobacco control laws and regulations, tobacco economics, tobacco industry organization, and tobacco control policies and programs. The system provides a standardized structure to monitor and assess the impact of tobacco. It will assist in the design of tobacco prevention and control programs and policies and enhance future tobacco surveillance and evaluation research. The presentation will include a demonstration of the web-based system. Issues regarding data collection, verification, and analysis, related tobacco surveillance efforts, and utility of the system will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: As the conclusion of the presentation, the participant will be able to: 1. Recognize the importance of electronic information systems in efforts to combact the global tobacco epidemic. 2. Utilize the electronic system to monitor and assess the impact of tobacco use and control globally.
Keywords: Tobacco, International
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, American Cancer Society, World Bank
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.