Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111487

Norman Goco, MHS¹, Jutta Thornberry, BS¹, Don Jackson, BS¹, Magdalena Daniels, AAS¹, Tyler Hartwell, PhD¹, Nancy Moss, PhD², and Michele Bloch, MD, PhD³. (1) RTI International, P.O. Box 27709-2194, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, 919-541-6000, ngoco@rti.org, (2) National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, 6100 Executive Blvd., Room 4B05, Rockville, MD 20852, (3) National Cancer Institute, 6130 Executive Blvd., Rm 4032, MSC 7337, Executive Plaza North, Bethesda, MD 20892-7337

The Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research (GN) was established in 2000 with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand scientific knowledge relevant to improving health outcomes for women and children in developing countries. This network is composed of 10 research units in Latin America, Asia and Africa that are affiliated with 9 U.S. universities, a data coordinating center (DCC), and scientific staff at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, the GN is implementing a tobacco use survey of pregnant women in 11 countries. The objective is to obtain information on tobacco use status during pregnancy and information on the knowledge and attitudes regarding tobacco products, health hazards of tobacco use, and environmental tobacco smoke exposure. The survey is being implemented by all 10 research units. At least 750 women will be enrolled per country. Data collection began in October 2004 and is expected to be completed by June 2005.

This presentation describes the challenges that the GN encountered in the preparation and implementation of the survey and shares the strategies implemented to overcome them. Recommendations for the conduct of similar international multisite research include: conducting more formative research for questionnaire development; centralization of ethics oversight; giving precedence to local ethics committees for informed consent; consolidating control of the translation process; documenting the distance training experience; and designing a data entry system that closely mirrors the questionnaire.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify at least three challenges encountered by the data coordinating center in the implementation of an international multisite tobacco use survey.
• Describe corresponding recommendations to improve implementation of international multisite tobacco research.
• Apply these lessons learned in the planning of international multisite research.

Keywords: International MCH, Tobacco

Related Web page: gn.rti.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.