Introducing the ABOUT™-Toolbox

Webinar Overview:

Join us to discover the ABOUT™-Toolbox, a portfolio of self-report instruments to assess perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in consumers of tobacco and nicotine-containing products. The portfolio includes five different measurement instruments assessing perceived risk, use history, product experience, perceived dependence, and health and functioning.

The aim of the ABOUT™-Toolbox is to provide researchers with access to instruments that are:

Developed and validated with state-of-the-science methods, straightforward to implement, and easy to interpret
Relevant to the whole spectrum of tobacco and nicotine-containing products, e.g., cigarettes, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, smokeless tobacco
Designed to facilitate comparisons of perception and behavior data across academic, industry and public health research communities

In alignment with the FDA’s draft guidance on modified risk tobacco products (MRTP), consumer perception and behavior assessments are key components of assessing the full public health impact of tobacco harm reduction. Valid and reliable self-report measures are needed to assess consumer responses to MRTP in comparison with other commercially available tobacco and nicotine containing products. This webinar will present an ongoing collaborative effort to develop fit-for-purpose measurement instruments to enhance the scientific framework of harm reduction. This new initiative has resulted in the creation of the ABOUT™ Toolbox (Assessment of Behavioral OUtcomes related to Tobacco and nicotine products).

Attendees will learn:

The specificities of each measurement instrument and when/how they can be accessed
The rationale and methods used in developing the instruments, as well as insights on their psychometric features, using as examples the ABOUT™-Perceived Risk and the ABOUT™-Dependence instruments

Presenters:

Catherine Acquadro, MD, is Head of Thought Leadership at ICON PCS. Innovation and communication have been the cornerstones of her career. In 1991, she has created the first means of communication about quality of life research, i.e., the Quality of Life Newsletter, now the Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Newsletter. She has launched Mapi’s linguistic validation (LV) activities in the early 1990s with her involvement in the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project with John Ware. She has coordinated the European Regulatory Issues on Quality of Life Assessment (ERIQA) project for the recognition of PROs in the evaluation of medicinal products, as well as the PRO Harmonization Group in collaboration with the FDA. Activities which led to the development and publication of the FDA guidance on PRO measures in 2009. She has created the Cochrane PRO Methods Group of which she has been co-convenor for several years with Donald Patrick and Gordon Guyatt. She has initiated the development of Mapi Research Trust databases, i.e., PROQOLID, PROLABELS and PROINSIGHTS. She is now involved in the development of a consortium approach for the development, validation, use and access of consumer-reported outcome measures for tobacco research.

Christelle Chrea, PhD, is managing the Behavioral Epidemiology team in Philip Morris International (PMI). She has 15+ years’ experience in managing consumer research projects in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams for different industries such as car, fragrances, wine, cosmetics and now reduced-risk tobacco products (RRP). In her current role, she leads a team of scientists to conceive the strategy, plan and activities to advance translational knowledge on PMI RRP perceptions and behaviors. Activities which led to the development and deployment of the ABOUT Toolbox.

Stefan Cano, PhD, CPsychol, AFBPsS, is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Modus Outcomes, a company that provides specialized consulting services to biopharmaceutical, diagnostic and device companies about the evaluation of the benefit and therapeutic value of medical products using patient centered outcome (PCO) measures. Before starting Modus Outcomes in 2014, Stefan spent 20 years working as an academic and industry consultant researcher in PCO measurement across a range of clinical and surgical disciplines (peer review publication H-Index 51). Having previously worked extensively in qualitative and quantitative research projects, Stefan’s main area of interest is in developing, applying, and improving mixed methods psychometric research in clinical studies and therapeutic trials. He is especially interested in maximizing the interpretability of existing and new PCO measures. Stefan is also co-developer of Q-Portfolio Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) measures for cosmetic, plastic, reconstructive, and cancer surgery called the BREAST-Q©, FACE-Q©, BODY-Q©, and CLEFT-Q©, which have been used internationally in clinical research, clinical trials, clinical practice, clinical guidance, quality improvement initiatives, national registries, national audit and normative data.

Dr. Thomas Salzberger is a senior lecturer at the Institute for Statistics and Mathematics, and the Institute for Marketing Management at the WU Vienna (Vienna University of Economics and Business). He also teaches at various universities of applied science and works as a consultant. He received a doctorate in 1998 on the comparison of traditional test theory and Rasch measurement for assessing cross-cultural measurement equivalence. In 2008, he completed the habilitation on an Alternative Framework for the Measurement of Latent Variables in Marketing Research. Besides research in consumer behaviour and international marketing, he focusses on the application of the Rasch model for measurement in the social sciences and the fundamental underpinnings of the model.

His work has been published for example in the Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Frontiers in Quantitative Psychology and Measurement, Advances in International Marketing, International Marketing Review, and Journal of Advertising. He is in charge of the MBC – Matilda Bay Cub discussion list.

Target audience:

This program is intended for senior professionals involved in tobacco research and harm reduction programs from industry, academia and regulatory bodies.

* Reduced-risk products (RRPs) is the term Philip Morris uses to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to those products versus continued smoking.