ITC Sudan Project Geoffrey T. Fong, Ph.D. Department of Psychology University of Waterloo ITC-TTURC Project Annual Meeting Portland, Oregon—March 1, 2008.

ITC Sudan Project

Geoffrey T. Fong, Ph.D.Department of Psychology

University of Waterloo

ITC-TTURC Project Annual MeetingPortland, Oregon—March 1, 2008

Sudan—Background Information

Population = 41,236,378 Income Group = LOW

Tobacco Prevalence (2005):

Adults: NO ADULT DATA AVAILABLE

Youth (From GYTS): Males 18.0%; Females 10.1%

FCTC Status: Signed Jun 10, 2004; Ratified Oct 31, 2005

FCTC Policies:

– Warning Labels: U.S.style

– Smoke Free: No law

– Ad/Promo: “Complete ban”; Enforcement = 1/10

Sudan—Background Information

Population = 41,236,378 Income Group = LOW

Tobacco Prevalence (2005):

Adults: NO ADULT DATA AVAILABLE

Youth (From GYTS): Males 18.0%; Females 10.1%

FCTC Status: Signed Jun 10, 2004; Ratified Oct 31, 2005

FCTC Policies:

– Warning Labels: U.S.style

– Smoke Free: No law

– Ad/Promo: “Complete ban”; Enforcement = 1/10

– Price: $5.38/pack; 7%; Taxes = ???

Why Sudan?

• First country in Africa

• Highly divergent geographical regions: North vs. South

• Low-income country, but with an excellent research centre (with strong connections globally)

• No information on (adult) prevalence of tobacco use

• Interesting mix of tobacco types: cigarettes, shisha, toombak

Major non-cigarette forms of tobacco use

Why Sudan?

• First country in Africa• Highly divergent geographical regions: North vs. South• Low-income country, but with an excellent research centre

(with strong connections globally)• No information on (adult) prevalence of tobacco use• Interesting mix of tobacco types: cigarettes, shisha, toombak• Women are predominant shisha smokers• Economic changes in Sudan: (1) greater interest from the

industry in this market? (2) changes in smoking patterns over time

• Sudan is a party to the FCTC: policies are being planned; opportunity to make direct contributions to the shape of those policies

ITC Sudan Survey

• 6 sampling areas: 5 cities and surrounding urban areas:– Central: Khartoum– North: Red Sea State (Port Sudan)– East: Al Jazeera State (Wad Medani)– West: North Kurdofan State– South: Juba + Internally displaced persons camp (IDP)

• In each area 500-600 tobacco users (cigarettes, shisha, toombak) and 200-300 non-users

• Face-to-face interviewing; multistage cluster sampling design• Planned 10 minute short interview and 30-45 minute long

interview; face-to-face • Full enumeration of households—>prevalence estimates

• 3 annual survey waves

ITC Sudan Survey—Research Team

• Epilab—Dr. Asma El Sony, Director (past President of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases—recipient of the Bloomberg Initiative’s research grants program funding)

ITC Sudan Survey—Funding

• Currently seeking funding: need about $140K/year• Asma El Sony is optimistic about possibilities for funding

– World Bank—>Sudan: $10,000 in first year

– IDRC

– DFID

– Bloomberg

ITC Sudan Survey—Challenges

• Very good team, with good record, but unclear about how the interviewing team will work with our challenging protocol: training and quality control will be critical

• Literacy and comprehension issues with the population; need to pilot test the survey (probably multiple iterations)

• Challenges of conducting surveys among some very poverty-stricken areas, including the IDP camps

• Language issues (although the Sudan team members are quite fluent in English)