Westat to Continue Supporting PATH Study

The U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products have announced the award of a third contract to Westat to continue to support the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. Westat has supported the study since its inception in 2011.

The PATH Study is a uniquely large, long-term study of tobacco use and health in the United States. It provides the ability to follow participants over time, looking at how and why people start, continue, discontinue and re-start using tobacco. It examines how the use of different tobacco products affects health, including cardiovascular and respiratory health. Findings help inform FDA’s actions related to tobacco products under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Westat’s team includes hundreds of experts—tobacco regulatory scientists, survey statisticians and methodologists, data and biospecimen collection experts, data scientists and IT staff, along with experienced field interviewers—who have contributed to the PATH Study for many years in collaboration with distinguished academic organizations and industry-leading operational subcontractors.

“Our work will build on the knowledge we have gained during the past 12 years of supporting the PATH Study and a foundation of over 35 years of tobacco research,” said PATH Study Project Director Charles Carusi in a statement. “We are honored to continue this work and enhance and extend the PATH Study’s impact on tobacco regulatory science while meeting NIDA’s and FDA’s need for sound science.”