Glorian Sorensen, director and professor, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, School of Public Health, Harvard University, MA
Research: Social Inequalities in Tobacco Use in India
Host: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
October 2003-February 2004

Sri Jagdish Temple

Preventing Tobacco Use in Schools
Armed with a briefing booklet and the book A Passage Through India, written by a previous Fulbrighter, Glorian Sorensen traveled to India determined to examine the social disparities in tobacco use. Her goals were to research the factors associated with differences in tobacco use among school personnel by region, type of school and presence of tobacco control policy, and identify barriers to and facilitators of tobacco control interventions.

Glorian Exterior Bihar

Sorensen, director of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Center for Community-based Research and professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, traveled to various regions of India, including Patna, rural Maharashtra, and Ahmedabad, to conduct her research. She also collaborated with many fellow scientists. "I have been fortunate to work with one of the major leaders within India in tobacco control research, P.C. Gupta," Sorensen said. Sorensen worked closely with Gupta in designing a plan to conduct her research.

Glorian Focus Group Bihar

Sorensen was able to produce three completed manuscripts for publication from her analysis and comparisons of teacher tobacco use in the Indian states of Bihar and Maharashtra and her research within schools to elucidate the findings from the Global School Personnel Survey.

With the help of her colleagues, Sorensen was also able to design a school-based policy intervention study to test the effect of school-based policies and related interventions on teachers' tobacco use and teaching about tobacco use prevention.

Sorensen's grant to India was as beneficial to her colleagues as it was to her. "I believe I have been able to contribute to the professional development of other researchers here," she said. "I have provided mentoring to several junior colleagues collaborating with me on this research, and they have told me that our work together has been meaningful within their own professional development." Sorensen said she will take her experiences from India and incorporate them into her professional and personal life.

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