title: EQUIPT: protocol of a comparative effectiveness research study evaluating cross-context transferability of economic evidence on tobacco control.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tobacco smoking claims 700,000 lives every year in Europe and the cost of tobacco smoking in the EU is estimated between €98 and €130 billion annually; direct medical care costs and indirect costs such as workday losses each represent half of this amount. Policymakers all across Europe are in need of bespoke information on the economic and wider returns of investing in evidence-based tobacco control, including smoking cessation agendas. EQUIPT is designed to test the transferability of one such economic evidence base-the English Tobacco Return on Investment (ROI) tool-to other EU member states.
  
  
  METHODS
  EQUIPT is a multicentre, interdisciplinary comparative effectiveness research study in public health. The Tobacco ROI tool already developed in England by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will be adapted to meet the needs of European decision-makers, following transferability criteria. Stakeholders' needs and intention to use ROI tools in sample countries (Germany, Hungary, Spain and the Netherlands) will be analysed through interviews and surveys and complemented by secondary analysis of the contextual and other factors. Informed by this contextual analysis, the next phase will develop country-specific ROI tools in sample countries using a mix of economic modelling and Visual Basic programming. The results from the country-specific ROI models will then be compared to derive policy proposals that are transferable to other EU states, from which a centralised web tool will be developed. This will then be made available to stakeholders to cater for different decision-making contexts across Europe.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The Brunel University Ethics Committee and relevant authorities in each of the participating countries approved the protocol. EQUIPT has a dedicated work package on dissemination, focusing on stakeholders' communication needs. Results will be disseminated via peer-reviewed publications, e-learning resources and policy briefs.
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Research Group, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Subhash
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pokhrel
authors.affiliation: Maastricht University, Caphri School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht, The Netherlands Trimbos Institute, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Evers
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leidl
authors.affiliation: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trapero-Bertran
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Health Policy and Health Economics, Eötvös Loránd University, and Syreon Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Zoltan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kalo
authors.affiliation: Maastricht University, Caphri School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hein de
authors.initials: Hd
authors.lastname: Vries
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Free Futures, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Crossfield
authors.affiliation: Smokefree South West, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.affiliation: FRESH Smokefree North East, Durham, UK.
authors.forename: Ailsa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rutter
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Research Group, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Coyle
authors.affiliation: LeLan (Ltd) Solutions, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lester-George
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London, London, UK National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, London, UK.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: West
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, London, UK.
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Research Group, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vogl
authors.affiliation: European Network for Smoking Prevention, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Cornel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Radu-Loghin
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Health Policy and Health Economics, Eötvös Loránd University, and Syreon Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Zoltan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Voko
authors.affiliation: Department for Development, Research and Health Technology Assessment, Agency for Quality and Accreditation in Health Care and Social Welfare, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Mirjana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huic
authors.affiliation: Health Economics Research Group, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, London, UK Department of Epidemiology & Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: Doug
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Coyle
mesh_terms: D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention
keywords: cost-effectiveness; return on investment; smoking cessation; tobacco