PREVENTION OF TOBACCO USE IN RURAL ETHNIC AMERICAN YOUTH

Colorado State University-Fort Collins, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION: (Applicant?s Abstract) Project IV: This project will determine whether localized media campaigns aimed at rural 7th and 8th grade Mexican American and White non-Hispanic students can influence their attitudes toward tobacco use and the subsequent use of tobacco (smoking cigarettes and smokeless tobacco). The primary target will be young women, where smoking produces potentially greater damage due to harmful effects to the fetus, newborn, and infant among pregnant smoking females. However, media messages will not be focused solely on females, and effects on males are expected such as reduction of smokeless tobacco. An effective and relatively low cost media campaign would be a valuable asset for rural communities that usually do not have the financial and technical resources for costly prevention efforts. However, typical media campaigns may not be useful for rural communities who may view their problems as more limited or unique compared to urban environments. The media campaigns that will be tested, therefore, will be localized to include local smoking data, identification with local situations, and images of local landmarks. There is evidence that prevention efforts may be enhanced by the use of peers; therefore, the effect of the media campaign alone (MEDIA) will be compared with the effect of the media campaign when local peers are added as an integral part of the media campaign (MEDIA+). In these MEDIA+ communities, a team of local peers (11th grade women) will be trained to present and monitor the media campaign. In addition, they will make radio spots, be names in news releases, and will be included in local visual references. The addition of this social influence from older females will be tested for its ability to reduce cigarette use and smokeless tobacco among younger females and males, over and above effects obtained in the MEDIA condition. Both experimental conditions will be compared to a control condition in which pre- and post assessments are obtained, with no intervention. Media components that can be localized to rural ethnic minority communities have been developed and tested, and the training program for peer involvement in media campaigns has been tested by the investigators. The programs are designed so that, if successful, technology transfer through extension services or 4H organizations would be feasible.