 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Jennifer L. Conroy, DrPH, MPH1, Carolyn Agurcia, MA2, Ross Shegog, PhD2, Jennifer Griffith, BS2, Steven H Kelder, PhD, MPH3, and Alexander V. Prokhorov, MD, PhD1. (1) Department of Behavioral Sciences, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, HMB 3.063.11, Houston, TX 77030, (2) Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, UT-Houston School of Public Health, 7000 Fannin, Houston, TX 77030, 713--500-9678, Carolyn.A.Agurcia@uth.tmc.edu, (3) School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, 7000 Fannin, Suite 2658, Houston, TX 77030
Youth-targeted smoking prevention and cessation is an important priority for improving the nation 's health. While several effective youth-targeted smoking prevention programs exist, teen smoking cessation remains difficult due to barriers to recruitment and participation. The use of a multimedia interactive CDRom tailored to relevant user criteria offers a promising avenue for targeting both smoking and nonsmoking teens because it removes threats associated with being identified as a smoker. However, implementation of such a high-tech program in the context of inner-city public schools presents its own set of issues. The implementation of the ASPIRE program in 8 public schools in a large urban school district in Texas provides a working example for the review and discussion of challenges to computer-based school health promotion program implementation. Diffusion of Innovations theory will be used to frame discussion of program, organizational, adopter, and communication channel characteristics which impede or facilitate program implementation. A comprehensive timeline and checklist for planning and addressing implementation issues will be provided. Participants should gain insight into practical concerns related to the implementation of computer-based health promotion programs in a public school setting. Specifically, suggestions will be made about district recruitment and approval, school recruitment, coordinator recruitment, coordinator training, school-researcher communication, participant recruitment, active parental consent, computer availability, adequacy and provision, student scheduling and competition with academic testing schedules, competition for scarce resources, computer security and liability issues, and hardware-software compatibility issues.
Learning Objectives:
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.