NOK 10 million to Rosaria Galanti to investigate tobacco use and COVID-19
Rosaria Galanti receives NOK 10 million from NordForsk. The grant is awarded for collaborative projects between Nordic and Baltic Countries concerning clinical and public health aspects of COVID-19, especially in combination with the use of tobacco such as smoking and snus.
International research has so far presented conflicting results, supporting both worse clinical prognosis and lower morbidity among smokers compared with non-smokers. A role of nicotine in the clinical manifestations of the disease has been hypothesized.
The funded project aims to shed light on the association between tobacco use (smoking and snus) and the onset and clinical course of COVID-19.
The Nordic Countries with their well-known registries are in a unique position to conduct pivotal studies at the population level, which is the aim of this project.
Collaboration between Sweden, Norway, and Finland
The project rests on a partnership between the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
“Since we aim to use information from general population samples the knowledge gain from this research will primarily be used to inform public health decisions. Depending on their robustness the results may also be of interest for basic research involving the pathological pathways of coronavirus infection”, says Rosaria Galanti, Professor at the Department of Global Public Health, who will be leading the project.
The grant is awarded by NordForsk, an organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers that provides funding for and facilitates Nordic cooperation on research and research infrastructure. It is part of the Nordic Programme on Health and Welfare.