FRESHAIR4Life: Targeting tobacco and air pollution exposure in mid- to late adolescents in disadvantaged populations

21 Mar 2023

Implementation research on the tailored, multidisciplinary NCD prevention package FRESHAIR4Life: Targeting tobacco and air pollution exposure in mid- to late adolescents in disadvantaged populations

The IPCRG is delighted to announce FRESHAIR4Life, a new collaboration on a four-year implementation science research programme. Building on FRESH AIR that we initiated back in 2010, it will develop context-specific interventions to reduce tobacco and air pollution exposure in disadvantaged populations.

This time, led by Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), working with four IPCRG member countries in Uganda, the Kyrgyz Republic, Romania and Greece, and also with The Initiative in Pakistan, we are focusing on tobacco and air pollution exposure in mid-late adolescents (14-21 year olds).

At the kick-off meeting at the end of February in London we started to plan the detailed context assessment and risk stratification that LUMC will facilitate. This will take place before each country team decides on its interventions and will take advantage of the stakeholder relationships and research tools developed in FRESH AIR and related projects.

Each country team will then need to decide where they can have most impact, given their strengths and stakeholder interest and commitment. They can then work with LUMC, Maastricht University Medical Centre+ (MUMC+), The University of Edinburgh and University of York to create their own “intervention palette”. Imagine a painter’s palette of primary colours red, blue and yellow. These are the primary evidence-based interventions that we will support teams to implement, including Very Brief Advice, a media campaign and an Implementation Intentions ("if-then") programme;  but they can also add to them and mix them to form their own context-specific interventions e.g. policy level interventions, clean cookstove implementation, testing the added value of 48 hour personal exposure monitoring, more in depth help to quit tobacco, and broader awareness campaigns. Expert teams such as NCD Child and University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) will be offering further specific support.

IPCRG’s leadership roles are in Work Package 7, to build capacity to deliver and sustain the interventions in terms of leadership, teaching and advocacy, and Work Package 8, together with Lungs Europe, on communication, dissemination and exploitation of results.  We aim to produce cases for action, an implementation toolbox, and social media strategies to promote spread, sustainability and to maximize our impact.   

To learn more:

  • Follow us on social media @FRESHAIRTeam
  • Book out your calendar for our 12th World Conference in Athens, 9-11 May 2024, when the FRESHAIR4Life team will be ready to share more!
  • Go to www.ipcrg.org/FRESHAIR where a new webpage will be created but you can already take a look to remind yourself of the outputs and knowledge gained with Horizon 2020 funding in the FRESH AIR implementation science project 2015-2018 that aimed to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic lung diseases where resources are limited.