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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Valerie B. Yerger, MA, ND and Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD. Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California St., Suite 265, San Francisco, CA 94143-0936, (415) 476-2784, valyer@itsa.ucsf.edu
Every year approximately 45,000 African Americans die from preventable diseases related to tobacco use. Among racial and ethnic groups, African Americans currently bear the greatest health burden from smoking-related diseases. The tobacco industry has a long history of attempts to target its marketing, influence community leaders, and neutralize any potential opposition from within African American communities. It has used strategies to sustain its pervasive presence within these communities to push its policy goals and normalize the tobacco presence. In this study, internal tobacco industry documents pertinent to African Americans, including confidential correspondence and marketing reports, were retrieved and presented to focus groups consisting of young adult (18-30 year old) African American smokers. Responses were analyzed to gauge the potential usefulness of these documents for countermarketing and other intervention purposes. Participants responded to the documents with anger, wanting to quit, and a desire to mobilize and advocate on behalf of their families and communities. We will present our concluded analytic findings and discuss how tobacco control advocates might utilize similar information to shape tobacco control interventions at the community level. California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (Grant #9RT-0095); National Cancer Institute (Grant #1 R01 CA87472-01).
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: African American, Tobacco Industry
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.