185453 Beyond public health borders: A multi-site examination of Tobacco-Related Message and Media (TeRMM) exposure to the underserved

Monday, October 27, 2008

Sherrie Flynt Wallington, PhD , Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dept of Medical Oncology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Laura A. Beebe, PhD , College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Josephine Crisostoma, MPH , Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dept of Medical Oncology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Allison Rose, MHS , SAIC-Fredereric/Tobacco Control Research Branch, NCI, Bethesda, MD
Eliseo J. Perez-Stable, MD , Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, PhD, MPH , Institute for Prevention Research, University of Southern California, Alhambra, CA
Donna Vallone, PhD, MPH , American Legacy Foundation, Washington, DC
K. Viswanath, PhD , Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Background: Understanding and measuring how people receive and perceive tobacco-related messages, both pro- and anti-tobacco, is essential to effective tobacco control. The changing media environment, the changing ethnic and racial landscape of the nation, and the continuing disparities in tobacco use warrant a precise measure of exposure to tobacco messages.

Methods: In 2006-07, a multi-site collaborative of three Community Network Programs (CNPs), the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND), the National Cancer Institute and the American Legacy Foundation, conducted 11 focus groups among African Americans, American Indians, and Latinos to examine how different groups receive and perceive tobacco-related messages. Nvivo was used to organize the qualitative data and content analysis to identify emerging themes. Themes were extracted by multiple coders and verified for inter-rater reliability.

Results: Themes emerged across seven categories: Messages that Discourage Tobacco Use, Messages that Encourage Tobacco Use, Attention Paid to Tobacco Messages, Awareness of “Safe Cigarettes,” Seeing or Hearing of Tobacco Messages, Tobacco Warning Strategies, and Perceptions of Warning Labels. Details from each category will be discussed along with next steps in developing and testing the TeRMM index for reliability and validity.

Conclusions: This was the first phase of a project that will develop and validate an index to measure tobacco-related messages and media exposure that is sensitive to media consumption patterns of various racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. The TeRMM index will provide a tool to understand media exposure among specific groups, thus informing the development of effective interventions for low socioeconomic and minority racial/ethnic groups.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the importance of having a precise measure of how and to what extent people, particularly various racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, are exposed to anti- and pro-tobacco messages. 2. Describe the effort in using a multi-site and three-phase approach in developing and validating a tobacco-related message and media exposure index. 3. Highlight the value of a tobacco-related message and media index for tobacco control researchers to use in their prevention and control efforts

Keywords: Tobacco Control, Underserved Populations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: DR. SHERRIE FLYNT WALLINGTON is a postdoctoral fellow with the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s MassCONECT program. Her research program focuses on three areas of interests, which targets those at greatest risk for cancer disparities. The first area focuses on the cancer information needs, information seeking patterns, and barriers to information seeking. The second area examines the study of new media technologies in the dissemination of cancer information. The third area investigates the effects of mass media in the development, implementation, and evaluation of cancer communication interventions.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: New Issues in Tobacco Control with Special Population Groups
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