Michelle Dixon Johns, MA, CHES¹, Jerry Gabriel Rendón, MA², Peter Mitchell, BA³, and Reba Griffith, MPH¹. (1) Office on Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, Mail Stop K-50, Atlanta, GA 30341, 770-488-5289, mdixon1@cdc.gov, (2) Center for Health Communication, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., 8th Floor, Washington, D.C., DC 20009, (3) Center for Social Marketing and Behavior Change, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009

This session will examine how health behaviors are influenced by elements of culture, and how cultural familial norms can be expanded to influence Hispanic/Latino community norms. Latinos/Hispanics are significantly more likely not to allow smoking inside their homes (73.6% ban it) than whites (59.9%) and African Americans (57.1%). Despite practices such as this, in 1999, Latinos/Hispanic males (58.8%) and females (69.9%) were less likely than white males (63.5%) and females (74.1%) and African American males (63.5%) and females (72.2%) to be covered by workplace smoking policies. What’s more, Latinos/Hispanics (41.4%) are almost twice as likely as whites (23.4%) to work in the service industry or labor sector, where they are least likely to be protected from secondhand smoke.

Given this context, perceptions of what is and is not a health problem are skewed. In focus groups conducted by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Office on Smoking and Health (CDC-OSH), respondents greatly overestimated tobacco use in their community and were thus reluctant to establish community rules around tobacco. CDC-OSH created a social marketing campaign designed to promote awareness of existing positive social norms regarding in-home protection against ETS - and smoking in general - within the Hispanic/Latino population as a way to establish better community rules and norms. A description of the formative research methodology, including focus groups, in-depth interviews and material pre-testing will be discussed. Campaign tactics including radio spots, print materials and earned media strategies will be presented.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Articulate the formative research process used to identify determinants to protective behaviors among the target audience.
• 2. Define effective strategies for influencing the behavior of a Hispanic target audience and engaging the Hispanic/Latino community at-large.
• 3. Apply a social marketing approach to influencing smoking norms among Hispanics/Latinos in their own (the learners’) community

Keywords: Smoking, Latinos

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I am employed by the Centers for Disease Control, Office on Smoking and Health