Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #118512

Mark Woods, BA, Your Human Resource Center, Amish Tobacco Outreach Project, 186 West Jackson Street, Millersberg, OH 44654, 330-674-4608, woodstobacco@earthlink.net and Megan Murray, ma, Lake-Geauga Tobacco Prevention Coalition, 9083 Mentor Avenue, Mentor, OH 44060.

Amish are among the hard to reach population; and the masked nature of tobacco use behavior in Amish population makes it hard to gauge the true extent of tobacco use prevalence. Vignettes from two state funded grants will provide insights on major barriers and successful approaches to tobacco prevention programs in the Amish communities. One grant targets the Geauga County Amish community of 15,000 people. Key programs include: outreach through the Middlefield Birthing Center (women are more receptive than men); Amish DARE program and the Amish Safety Council with some Amish members. Tobacco products have infiltrated both the youth and adult; and Amish still harbor smoking as a rite of passage. About 56% Amish families have someone (83% of them are fathers) who uses tobacco products. Project A.M.I.S.H. (Awareness Making Inroads towards Smoke-free Homes) was implemented to address secondhand smoke, an issue attributable also to inhibited air exchange systems in the homes and limited education. Another grant is in Holmes County which houses the largest Amish community in the world (190+ districts). This Amish Tobacco Outreach Project began its successful outreach “head-on” with the "steering committee" that comprised of members from Schools Advisory Committee and two other local Amish businessmen, one a past bishop. What helped was the past working with this population. The program has effectively developed a five-tiered approach: Schools (implemented Word of Mouth), Smoke-Free Initiative (putting together a "consumer guide" of doctors, dentists, restaurants, and stores), media, and community education ("speaker series"); and cessation (intervention protocol).

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants would be able to

1). Learn selected key barriers in implementing tobacco prevention programs in the unique Amish communities and get an understanding of what type of program intervention may work (case study of Amish in Holmes County in Ohio) and what may not (case study of Amish in Geauga County in Ohio).
• Recognize the invisible issue of tobacco use and the socio-cultural context in Amish communities; and get a good understanding of current data on tobacco use prevalence. 3) Assess how an Amish multi-dimensional approach was effective “head-on” in outreaching the Amish population in the largest contiguous Amish community in Ohio’s Holmes County. 4). Articulate how program outcomes are useful to modify strategies innovatively and effectively to address tobacco control issues in the Amish communities.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commertial supporters WITH THE EXCEPTION OF Grant funded by the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation.