Tobacco Research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Scoping Review of Published Studies from Seven Countries
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REVIEW
Tobacco Research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Scoping Review of Published Studies from Seven Countries Randah R. Hamadeh1 · Saif M. Borgan2 · Joanne Khabsa3 · Abla M. Sibai3
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract While surveillance on a global scale has been showing a decline in tobacco smoking in the past decade, rates in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) remained stable with some countries showing rising trends. This study aimed to analyze the landscape of tobacco research in the EMR, present data on publication trends, and identify research gaps and opportunities to guide future tobacco research in the region. We conducted a scoping review of tobacco research in seven countries from January 2000 to December 2013. Three hundred and forty eight studies were identified, the majority of which were published in international journals and in English language. There was an increase in publications over time, with a significant positive linear trend (p = 0.03). Descriptive cross-sectional and case–control studies were the most common study designs (67.0%), and only 8% were longitudinal studies. Papers that reported, in part or solely, on waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) constituted 25.6% of the total publication pool. Tobacco consumption was treated as an exposure variable in half of the papers and mostly in relation to cancer and cardiovascular diseases, as an outcome measure in 37.7%, and as a confounding variable in 14.7% of the papers. Studies that examined associations of tobacco with other behaviors (5.3%) were lacking. The scarcity of high-evidence tobacco research in the EMR, together with the relatively deficient data on WTS and associations with other factors warrant the need for discussions on research priority setting and guidance on funding allocations in the region. Keywords Tobacco · Smoking · Cigarettes · Waterpipe · EMR
Introduction Tobacco smoking is responsible for 8 million deaths every year, constituting one of the biggest public health challenges to date [1, 2]. This has resulted in rapid action by governments to introduce various tobacco control measures, including the creation of smoking cessation services, total ban on tobacco advertising and promotion, increase in tobacco taxation and creating national smoke-free laws and legislations [1, 3]. In the high-income countries, smoking has * Randah R. Hamadeh [email protected] 1
Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
2
Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
3
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
been in overall decline for decades, although it continues to rise in some groups. By contrast, cigarette consumption has increased in low- and middle-income countries, and this is in part because of scarcity of resources, weak infrastruct
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