STEPUP: Doctoral Dissertation Grants

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STEP-UP Doctoral Dissertation Grants

• Annice E. Kim, MPH
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  School of Public Health

ASPH STEP-UP Tobacco Workshop St. Louis April
16, 2004
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Overview

• Purpose of funding mechanism
• Summary of doctoral student projects
• Successes and challenges
• Recommendations

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Purpose of Funding

• ASPH anticipates that STEP UP doctoral
  dissertation scholarships will further progress
  towards strengthening the pool of competent
  teachers and researchers specializing in tobacco
  studies at the highest levels of academic study.

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Funding Mechanism

• Competitive grant application
• Faculty-mentored research
• 30k annual budget up to 2 years
• Quarterly budget/ progress reports
• Executive summary of findings
• From 2002 2005, awarded
• 6 doctoral students
• 300,000 total

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Doctoral Dissertation Grantees
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Stacey Kenfield, MPH(Harvard SPH)

• Title Effects of smoking and smoking cessation
  in women
• Goal To examine the relationship between
  smoking, smoking cessation, and total and
  cause-specific mortality and to model the effects
  of risk factors on lung cancer incidence using
  the Nurses Health Study dataset

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Annice Kim, MPH (UNC SPH)

• Title Pricing and promotional strategies used
  to sell cigarettes on the Internet
• Goal To assess pricing and promotional
  strategies Internet cigarette vendors employ to
  sell tobacco online and to explore how these
  factors influence adult smokers decisions to
  purchase cigarettes online
• Advisor Dr. Kurt Ribisl

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Theresa Osypuk, MPH (Harvard SPH)

• Title Variation in State Smoking Rates by Race
  and Class
• Goal To examine differences among states
  smoking prevalence rates, for different
  racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups using
  multi-level modeling techniques
• Advisor Dr. Dolores Acevedo-Garcia

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Eric Pevzner, MPH (UNC SPH)

• Title Tackle Smoking Project Randomized Trial
  to Promote Compliance with Tobacco-Free School
  Policies in North Carolina
• Goal Randomized trial of NC high schools to
  assess compliance with Tobacco Free School
  policies and to test an intervention to reduce
  smoking at high school football games in NC
• Advisor Dr. Kurt Ribisl

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Stephanie Smith, MPH (Johns Hopkins)

• Title The College Freshman Nicotine Study
• Goal To assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs
  that full-time college freshmen attending JHU
  have pertaining to nicotine, products that
  contain nicotine, and nicotine addiction.
• Advisor Dr. Fran Stillman

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Rebecca Williams, MHS (UNC SPH)

• Title To what extent do Internet cigarette
  vendors comply with AB1830, Californias new
  youth access law?
• Goal Assess compliance with AB1830, a California
  law passed in 2002 to regulate what Internet
  cigarette vendors must do to prevent sales to
  minors.
• Advisor Dr. Kurt Ribisl

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Research Topics

• Harm reduction products
• Internet cigarette sales
• Race/SES disparities
• Compliance with tobacco policies
• Youth access
• Cessation among women

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Challenges

• Not allocating enough grant time
• Inexperience with budget issues
• Delays with processing/ crediting grant at the
  university end
• In essence, the usual challenges

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Successes

• Financial support
• Freedom to pursue own research
• Experience managing grants
• ASPH staff support and flexibility
• Networking and presentation skills
• Mentoring relationships
• Led to subsequent grants

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Recommendations

• Continue funding dissertation awards
• Bridge the gap between generation of researchers
  through mentoring
• Explicate future areas of research
• Increase training in multidisciplinary content
  areas
• Recognize/award mentors
• Offer opportunities to submit research for peer
  review publication