Happy-N-Healthy Home: A Family-based Intervention for Chinese and Vietnamese Smokers

Audience: Community advocates and researchers who are interested in community-based interventions for promoting tobacco control in underserved populations.

Key Points: Tobacco use disparities remain high in Chinese and Vietnamese men. Increasing evidence support the importance of involving smokers’ families to promote intention to quit and to utilize cessation resources among Chinese and Vietnamese American populations. “Happy-N-Healthy Home” is a pilot family intervention program using lay health worker (LHW) outreach to involve both smokers’ families and smokers to promote smoking cessation and the use of evidence-based smoking cessation resources in Chinese and Vietnamese American men.  The development of the proposed family intervention was guided by in-depth qualitative dyadic and individual interviews of 26 current smokers, former smokers and family members, community input, and literature integrating 3 theories: Social Network Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and the Transtheoretical Model. The program involves training of 16 LHWs.  Participants recruited by LHWs receive 2 small group education sessions and 2 follow-up telephone calls over a 2-month period. Outcome evaluations of the program include feasibility measures in recruitment and retention; family members’ provision of support for their smokers; smokers’ perceived support from their family, smokers’ utilization of resources, quit intention, and quit attempts at 3-month follow-up.

Educational Experience: We will describe the development of a theory-based LHW outreach family intervention program. Discussion will focus on LWH training and program implementation with preliminary outcome data.

Benefits: The family intervention using LHW outreach has significant implications for social capacity building and dissemination beyond the Chinese and Vietnamese communities.