Tobacco Use Among American Indian/Alaska Native Tribal College Students

Audience: The groups that will most likely benefit from this presentation are: American Indians/Alaska Natives and others who are working with these populations, people working in the tobacco prevention field, and people working on smoke-free policies, particularly on college/university campuses.

Key Points: 1) We explain the process of establishing a cohort of American Indian/Alaska Native tribal college/university students to determine the predictors of smoking initiation (non-use to experimentation) and progression (experimentation to established use).  2) We discuss the use of qualitative methods to gather information that will be used to inform the future design and implementation of prevention and cessation programs for smoking. 3) We report the preliminary survey and focus group results. 4) We explain how we plan to examine the nicotine metabolism in current smokers in this population.

Educational Experience: The audience will learn the key points via poster presentation as well as discussion/question and answer session with the presenting author. 

Benefits: Audience members will learn about the processes we are using to examine the history of tobacco use among American Indian/Alaska Native tribal college students. This is important because American Indians have the highest smoking rates of any ethnic group in the US and have more difficulty quitting smoking than other ethnic groups. The information we gain will assist us and others in making significant inroads in developing culturally relevant smoking prevention and cessation strategies for this population.