UNITED KINGDOM
The implementation site in the United Kingdom (Scotland) is coordinated by the University of Stirling (USTIRLING), in particular by the Institute for Social Marketing & Health (ISMH), a world-leading and reputed centre for research in health marketing, intervention behaviour change, and public policy with over 40 years’ experience in research on health and the effectiveness of policies designed to protect health by controlling marketing. ISMH has a track record of research relating to individual and policy level interventions linked to tobacco use, alcohol consumption and physical activity. USTIRLING will work within PIECES in one of the largest health boards in Scotland, NHS Lanarkshire, covering a population of approximately 650,000 inhabitants. ISMH will partner with the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland, building on existing partnerships where ISMH has previous experience of delivering individual and family-centred preventive interventions on tobacco.
Cancer-related risks factors in their portfolio include: (a) Smoke-free homes programmes: the EU H2020 TackSHS (GA. 681040) study led by ICO, where ISMH led WP 4 to design and implement an evidence-based smoke-free homes intervention that was implemented in Italy, Greece, Spain, and the UK). Also, personalized and targeted interventions around smoking behaviour change have included the REFRESH project76, development of the AFRESH intervention77 , and are now working in low- and middle-income countries (Malaysia and Indonesia) on delivery of the MyFamily MySmoke project78 and a new community-wide approach to smoke-free called COFRESH. ISMH had a leading role in policy-level interventions, such as the recent ban on smoking in all prisons in Scotland (Tobacco in Prisons Study – TIPS)79 and a current project (TIPS-2) designing individual and family level interventions to help prison inmates avoid re-starting smoking on their release. The ISMH hosts the international, multidisciplinary team of experts Smoke-free Homes Innovation Network (SHINE); (b) Physical activity: research on interventions to increase personal physical activity and reduce the risks associated with being overweight and obese, such as the Football Fans in Training (FFIT)80, an individual targeted intervention delivered to overweight men via professional sports clubs that has been used across the UK and in other sporting contexts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other European countries.