Global Tobacco Surveillance System Data (GTSSData): a New Interactive Internet Application

Background:  Tobacco use is a major preventable cause of premature death and disease worldwide. Currently, approximately 5.4 million people die each year due to tobacco-related illnesses—a figure expected to increase to more than 8 million a year by 2030. Unless the current trend is changed, the vast majority of these deaths are projected to occur in the developing world. An efficient and systematic surveillance mechanism to monitor the epidemic is one of the essential components of a comprehensive tobacco control program. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) is the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Global Tobacco Surveillance and the technical agency for the Global Tobacco Surveillance System (GTSS).

Program background:  In 2011, CDC OSH’s Global Tobacco Control Branch released a new interactive Web application, the Global Tobacco Surveillance System Data or GTSSData.  GTSSData provides a single access point and consistent approach to view data from four tobacco-related surveys, across 20 key tobacco control measures including WHO’s MPOWER package, for over 120 countries. The application allows the OSH to make timely data and document updates which support countries’ capacities to monitor tobacco use, guide national tobacco prevention and control programs, and facilitate comparison of tobacco related data at all levels.  GTSS includes data on youth, adults and special populations collected using global standards.  GTSS fills a significant data gap on the leading preventable cause of death globally.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  GTSSData was designed to accommodate the needs of different types of users. Policy makers and media staff can quickly access analyzed country data reports, fact sheets and view data for key tobacco and MPOWER topics. They can view data tables and graphs by demographics, compare data across countries, and view trends over time. Researchers can easily download complete data sets, survey instruments, and technical documentation for their own analysis. To help ensure potential users could easily access GTSSData, OSH developed a broad approach for promoting the application. GTSSData was featured on CDC’s Facebook and Twitter page as well as the CDC.gov home page. Buttons and a Web widget were developed to encourage users and partner organizations to share links to GTSSData on their own Web sites. OSH also added a spotlight on the OSH site home page, emailed partners announcing new application, optimized internal and external search, and developed a printed materials describing GTSSData.

Conclusions:  In partnership with WHO, CDC, and others the GTSS monitors trends in tobacco prevalence, consumption, attitudes, and actions globally.  The new GTSSData web application serves as a critical part of CDC OSH’s mission to share information, provide a centralized data resource, and streamline communications among partner organizations and survey countries.  By using newer Web technologies as well as more traditional communication and promotion tools, OSH was able to widely disseminate the GTSSData application to reach audiences globally.

Implications for research and/or practice:  This presentation will provide an overview of the GTSSData application, the social media tools used to promote the application and lessons learned from these endeavors.