Creating a Smoking Cessation Intervention within a Community-Based-Participatory-Research Framework

Audience: While smoking rates in the United States have decreased, some population subgroups have smoking rates that exceed national and state averages.  These higher rates often are associated with higher incidence rates of tobacco-associated cancers.  Decreases in smoking rates lead to decreases in mortality and morbidity.  Audience members would include researchers and practitioners interested in health disparities. 

Key Points: Our research suggests that novel smoking cessation interventions are useful in reaching smokers who might not otherwise be directly targeted with cessation messaging from larger tobacco control initiatives.  Using spatial modeling techniques, we identified an underserved geographic locale in South Florida with higher than expected incidence rates of tobacco-associated cancers.  We then used a community-based-participatory-research (CBPR) design to create and field a health survey, implemented in the summer 2010, to explore smoking behaviors in this underserved population.  The survey data showed an elevated smoking rate (38%) in this community, with smokers using less effective quit methods.  Informed by these results, in 2011, we conducted focus groups to elicit information about the acceptability of a novel smoking cessation intervention delivered by trained former smokers from within peer networks.  Focus group findings indicate that community member led support groups are the preferred cessation mechanism in this community.

Educational Experience: Audience members will be better suited to identify possible cancer risk communities.

Benefits: In using CBPR, we aim to establish and maintain a smoking cessation intervention led by community members to increase cessation efforts in an underserved area.