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Lung Diseases Programme - LD04

FRESH AIR – Free Respiratory Evaluation and Smoke-exposure reduction by primary Health cAre Integrated gRoups

"Improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic lung diseases in Uganda, Vietnam, Greece and Kyrgyz Republic in partnership with UK, Netherlands, Denmark, USA and Belgium"

Project locations

Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, Vietnam

Funding organisation

European Commission

Funding amount

$3.3million


Project locations

Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, Vietnam


Principal Investigator

Rianne van der Kleij, Leiden University, The Netherlands

LD04 Group

FRESH AIR is a 3 year project which addresses the urgent need to prevent, diagnose and treat lung diseases in LMICs and other low-resource settings where the greatest burden of disease is experienced. The Consortium brings together leading international respiratory researchers, clinicians and policy experts from EU member states and the US who have expertise and experience of the challenges of implementation in LMICs and healthcare providers, policy makers and implementers from four countries that represent very different low-resource settings.

Members will work together to adapt and test innovation and evidence-based practice in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung disease in four low-resource settings in Uganda, Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam and Greece with high levels of tobacco consumption and exposure to Household Air Pollution (HAP). In so doing, the Consortium will transfer skills and technology from EU member states and the US to new contexts and explore a range of implementation science research questions. The new knowledge this generates will be widely disseminated nationally, regionally and internationally, ensuring the scale-up of interventions tested by the project and global impact of research findings. The project will also provide new perspectives on policy issues of concern to EU members, increase the international profile of EU funded research on key health challenges and open up markets for healthcare innovations.

The project has 7 specific objectives focused on the following:

  1. Identifying factors influencing the implementation of evidenced-based interventions
  2. Exploring which awareness-raising approaches are most effective in achieving behaviour change
  3. Adapting interventions that provide smoking cessation support
  4. Testing innovative diagnostic methods for COPD
  5. Promoting pulmonary rehabilitation as a low cost treatment
  6. Reducing children’s risk of lung damage
  7. Generating new knowledge, innovation and scalable models.

The project is coordnated by Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).


Publications

Lozano R, Naghavi M, Foreman K, et al. Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 2012; 380: 2095–128

To T, Stanojevic S, Moores G, Gershon AS. Bateman ED, Cruz AA et al. Global asthma prevalence in adults: findings from the cross-sectional world health survey. BMC Public Health 2012; 12: 204.

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