Supporting migrant groups to reduce tobacco-related harms and create smoke-free family environments: Future priorities and research gaps

Citation

O’Donnell R, Tigova O, Teodorowski P, Villarroel-Williams N, Shevchuk A, Nesterova O, Arabska Y, Ylli A, Qirjako G, Fernández E & Semple S (2024) Supporting migrant groups to reduce tobacco-related harms and create smoke-free family environments: Future priorities and research gaps. Tobacco Induced Diseases, 22 (June). https://doi.org/10.18332/tid/189356

Abstract
There are approximately 1 billion migrants globally, about 1 in 8 of the global population. These include 281 million international migrants and 82.4 million forcibly displaced (48 million internally displaced, 26.4 million refugees, and 4.1 million asylum seekers)1. Europe presently serves as the primary destination for international migrants, accommodating 87 million individuals, representing 30.9% of the international migrant population2. Despite the right to health for everyone expressly set out in various international treaties and case law3, a discrepancy exists between emphasis on health rights and equity, and the actual provision of healthcare and services for migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. To address this gap, the World Health Organization has recently published its first global research agenda on health and migration4 to guide research efforts and shape policy and practice. Priorities include research on developing interventions to improve service provision, quantifying the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among migrant and refugee groups, and research on how health and disease are conceptualized and expressed differently by people from different cultural backgrounds. Building on a recent two-day workshop hosted by the University of Stirling, this Editorial discusses these priorities concerning the health harms caused by smoking among migrant populations with a particular focus on how to increase the provision of smoke-free family environments and protect children and non-smokers from the effects of secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS)

Keywords
migrant health; smoke-free home; secondhand smoke; smoking cessation

Journal
Tobacco Induced Diseases: Volume 22, Issue June