£157,000 awarded to study headed by KU Doctor

A Kingston University expert heads a major new medical study that has been awarded £157,000 from the Medical Research Council.

The three-year study will develop on a tool that examines the cost effectiveness and impact of anti-smoking strategies, such as no smoking signs, to help government officials, healthcare providers and policy makers.

Dr Annette Boaz, reader in Health Care Research at Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, said: “In this study we have an opportunity to observe stakeholder engagement in an EU project designed to promote a tool to help decision makers decide how to promote smoking cessation.

“The tool was developed in the UK and the plan is to role it out to other European countries.”

The study will be funded by the Medical Research Council after the team were awarded the grant along with two other projects, which hopes to gain a “deeper understanding of how stakeholder engagement acts as a mechanism for promoting research use.”

It is estimated that between €98 and €130 billion is spent on tobacco smoking in Europe a year; just over one per cent of the European Union’s gross domestic product.

With tobacco smoking killing 700,000 people every year, there has been a decrease of smokers in the last three years in Europe.

 “A lot of money is spent on research, but we don’t know very much about how research is used and how we could support increased research use,” said Dr Boaz.

The team will use EQUIPT, a two million research project led by Brunel University’s Health Economics Research Group, which will observe stakeholders events, conduct surveys, carry out interviews and review documents during the project.

“Previous research suggests that engaging stakeholders in the research process will increase the chances of the research being used to change policy and practice,” said Dr Boaz.

Alison O’Shea, a research associate at Kingston University, will also be involved in the study with Dr Boaz, where they hope to win further funding for future studies that focus on research impact.