EAT-Brazil Award for Tobacco Control: a brief description of its first edition

SUMMARY

Smoking is a major global risk factor for preventable death and disability. EAT is an acronym for Education Against Tobacco, a multinational network of physicians and medical students that aims to improve tobacco control by means of school-based prevention targeted at adolescents through counseling, use of software and support materials. The first EAT-Brazil Award, launched in March 2018, was a competition designed to encourage the proposal of objective solutions for tobacco control in Brasil, and identify new talents in the area. Brazilian undergraduate students from any field of study could submit a one-page essay on the subject, competing for the amount of R$ 1000.00 (one thousand reais). There were a total of 39 applicants (20 women and 19 men) from 9 Brazilian states and 18 undergraduate programs, with a mean age of 22.5 years (SD = 3.7). Data from an online anonymous questionnaire answered after the submission of their essays revealed that most applicants were students of institutions from in the state of Minas Gerais (n = 26/39; 66.6%), studied medicine (n = 20/39, 51.3%), and had no prior knowledge of the EAT-Brazil Network (n = 27/39, 69.2%). The winner of the award was Lucas Guimarães de Azevedo, a fourth-year medical student at Federal University of Western Bahia. The next editions of the award should focus on increasing the number of applicants and diversifying their geographical distribution.

KEYWORDS:
Tobacco; Smoking prevention; Awards and prizes; Policy making; Brasil

RESUMO

O tabagismo é um dos principais fatores de risco globais para morte e incapacidade evitáveis. EAT é a sigla em inglês para Educação contra o Tabaco (Education Against Tobacco), uma rede mundial formada por médicos e estudantes de medicina cuja missão é atuar no combate ao tabagismo por meio da prevenção da iniciação ao tabagismo em adolescentes escolares mediante aconselhamento, uso de aplicativos móveis e de materiais de apoio. O primeiro Prêmio EAT-Brazil, lançado em março de 2018, foi um concurso destinado a encorajar a proposição de soluções objetivas para o avanço do controle do tabagismo no país e a identificação de novos talentos para a área. Estudantes de graduação brasileiros de qualquer curso submeteram um texto de uma página sobre o tema, concorrendo à quantia de R$ 1.000. Houve um total de 39 trabalhos inscritos (20 por mulheres e 19 por homens) de nove estados brasileiros e 18 cursos de graduação, com idade média de 22,5 anos (DP=3,7). Dados de um questionário anônimo on-line respondido pelos inscritos revelou que a maioria era composta por graduandos de alguma instituição do estado de Minas Gerais (n=26/39; 66,6%), que estudavam medicina (n=20/39; 51,3%) e não tinham conhecimento prévio sobre a Rede EAT-Brazil (n=27/39; 69,2%). O ganhador do prêmio foi Lucas Guimarães de Azevedo, aluno do oitavo período de medicina da Universidade Federal do Oeste da Bahia. As próximas edições do Prêmio devem focar o aumento do número de inscritos e a diversificação de sua distribuição geográfica.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
Tabaco; Prevenção do hábito de fumar; Distinções e prêmios; Formulação de políticas; Brasil

Smoking is among the main preventable risk factors for death and disability worldwide.¹ Approximately 1.1 billion people in the world smoke daily, just like 10%-15% of the Brazilian population.^2.3 In 2015 alone, smoking was responsible for 428 deaths per day in Brasil, and for a total loss of 3.72 million years of life, representing a cost of R$ 39.4 billion to the Brazilian health system.³

EAT is an acronym for Education Against Tobacco, a global network formed by physicians and medical students from 80 medical schools in 14 countries, that aims to improve tobacco control by means of primary prevention among adolescents in the school setting through counseling, use of mobile apps and other pretested support materials.⁴ With 2,000 medical student volunteers, the network conducts educational interventions that cover more than 40,000 adolescents per year. The EAT mobile apps, Smokerface and Smokerstop, are free and available in several languages, and are downloaded approximately 300 times per day.^4.5

EAT was founded in Brasil in 2016 (EAT-Brazil) and is already present in 15 national medical schools. Two randomized controlled trials are being conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of actions with Brazilian adolescents.^4.5 In 2017, EAT-Brazil was awarded the Laureate Brazil Prize for Social Entrepreneurship and, using the resources received from this prize, decided to create its own award: the EAT-Brazil Award for Tobacco Control.

The EAT-Brazil Award, launched in March 2018, is a contest designed to encourage the proposition of objective solutions for the advancement of tobacco control in the country. After writing a one-page essay on the subject, Brazilian undergraduate students of any field of study could apply for the first edition of the award to compete for the R$ 1,000 (one thousand reais) prize. As a way to celebrate the World No Tobacco Day, the result was announced on May 31st, 2018.

The EAT-Brazil Award was publicized and supported by several institutions, among them the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), the National Commission for the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Conicq), the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), the Brazilian Societies of Pulmonology and Phthisiology (SBPT), Cardiology (SBC, through its Department of Atherosclerosis) and of Family and Community Medicine (SBMFC).

The award received a total of 39 applications (20 women and 19 men) from nine Brazilian states and 18 different fields of study, and the applicants’ average age was 22.5 years (SD=3.7). Data from an anonymous online questionnaire answered by the participants revealed that most of them were students of institutions from the state of Minas Gerais (n=26/39; 66.6%), studied medicine (n=20/39; 51.3%), and had no prior knowledge on the EAT-Brazil Network (n=27/39; 69.2%).

One of the applicants reported being a smoker and declared having smoked straw cigarettes in the previous 30 days. None of the applicants declared smoking regular cigarettes, hookah, electronic cigarettes or other tobacco products in the same period. Only one of the applicants reported being a former smoker, while 35.9% declared having experienced at least one of these products at some point in life.

Applicants reported as the primary motivation to apply for the award: helping to improve tobacco control in Brasil (n=17/39; 43.6%), fostering the individual participation in projects on smoking (n=7/39; 17.9%), or gain academic recognition (n=7/39; 17.9%). 46.2% were or have been involved in some project for tobacco control. Most participants declared that their participation in the competition made them learn something new about smoking and motivated them to participate in other projects on the subject (Figure 1).

FIGURE 1
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS PER FIELD OF STUDY AND RESULTS FROM QUESTIONS ASKED TO THE STUDENTS (N=39) ABOUT THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE AWARD.

The winner of the award was Lucas Guimarães de Azevedo, a fourth-year medical student at Federal University of Western Bahia, whose essay was entitled “The Challenge of Tobacco Control for the Next Generations.” According to the winner, Brasil should intensify smoking control actions focused on young people. For that, he argues that such actions must be present in spaces occupied by this population that are not currently reached by government initiatives: media networks. He argues that the digital era brought a democratic access to information, and social media operates fueling and replicating behaviors for young people and adolescents, who are increasingly exposed to tobacco in digital media, in particular to hookah, electronic cigarettes, and flavored cigarettes. As a strategy, the winner suggests an interesting, low cost and unprecedented initiative for tobacco control in Brasil: the recruitment, by governmental and non-governmental organizations, of young people and adolescents (in particular, Youtubers) to carry out actions of smoking awareness and prevention in social media networks.

The ideas presented in the winning essay are relevant and current. Due to the reduction in the prevalence of smokers over the past two decades, the tobacco industry started to invest both in the creation of other tobacco products (such as hookah, hand-rolled cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and electronic cigarette)⁶ and in the expansion of consumption among young people by means of attractive packaging and product promotion strategies aimed at this age group.⁷ Recent studies show that users of these new tobacco products, in particular adolescents, use the Internet and social media to obtain and share information about the products, strengthen social acceptance, and pressure their peers into using them.^8.9 Moreover, users who have access to such information online tend to perceive these new tobacco products as being less harmful to health.⁸ Together, these data reinforce how important it is that social media is included as a platform in government prevention campaigns aimed at young people, as well as the importance of quickly countering fake news, which often presents new forms of tobacco consumption as a non-harmful option.¹⁰

The comprehensiveness and transdisciplinarity of the first edition of the EAT-Brazil Award (with participants from nine states and 18 different fields of study) reinforce the potential of the EAT-Brazil Award for finding new strategies and talents in tobacco control in the country.

Since most medical schools affiliated to the EAT-Brazil are from Minas Gerais (n=11/15; 73.4%), it is likely that the award was more publicized in the state, which would explain why most applicants were students from medical schools from the state of Minas Gerais.

The next editions of the award should focus on increasing the number of participants and diversifying their geographical distribution. This could be achieved via partnerships with universities to publicize the award in other states not affiliated to the EAT, as well as more partnerships with governmental and non-governmental institutions.

REFERENCES

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  GBD 2015 Tobacco Collaborators. Smoking prevalence and attributable disease burden in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet. 2017;389(10082):1885-906.
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  World Health Organization. WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2017: monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017.
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  Pinto M, Bardach A, Palacios A, Aline Biz, Andrea Alcaraz, Belen Rodríguez, et al. Carga de doença atribuível ao uso do tabaco no Brasil e potencial impacto do aumento de preços por meio de impostos. Documento técnico IECS N° 21. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Maio de 2017. [cited 2018 Oct 8]. Available from: www.iecs.org.ar/tabaco
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  Link AR, Cawkwell PB, Shelley DR, Sherman SE. An exploration of online behaviors and social media use among hookah and electronic-cigarette users. Addict Behav Rep. 2015;2:37-40.
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  Hébert ET, Case KR, Kelder SH, Delk J, Perry CL, Harrell MB. Exposure and engagement with tobacco- and e-cigarette-related social media. J Adolesc Health. 2017;61(3):371-7.
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  Jackler RK, Li VY, Cardiff RAL, Ramamurthi D. Promotion of tobacco products on Facebook: policy versus practice. Tob Control. 2019;28(1):67-73.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 July 2019
• Date of issue
  June 2019

History

• Received
  01 Nov 2018
• Accepted
  03 Nov 2018