203825 Smoking Prevalence and Factors Associated with Smoking Status among Vietnamese Males in California

Monday, November 9, 2009

Elisa Tong, MD , Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA
Ginny Gildegorin, PhD , Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Tung Nguyen, MD , Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Janice Tsoh, PhD , Department of Psychiatry, UCSF, San Francisco, CA
Mary V. Modayil, MSPH, PhD , California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Control Program, Sacramento, CA
Ching Wong, BA , Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Stephen J. McPhee, MD , Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
BACKGROUND: Vietnamese American men have been reported to have a high smoking prevalence but estimates were based on local data. California's Vietnamese represent about 40% of U.S. Vietnamese. OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalence of smoking and associated factors among Vietnamese men in California. METHODS: We conducted a computer-assisted telephone interview survey of 1,101 Vietnamese men in California (cooperation rate: 63.5%) between 11/07 and 5/08. We used a list of 55 most common Vietnamese surnames to create a sampling frame of residential telephone landlines. The survey was based on previous tobacco use surveys of California's Tobacco Control Program, and conducted in Vietnamese or English. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted using SAS and data weighted to the U.S. 2000 Census. RESULTS: Among California Vietnamese men, 25% were current smokers, 24% were former smokers, and 51% were never smokers. Regression models showed that common factors associated with current and former smoking (vs. never smoking) were: lower educational attainment, not being Buddhist, having been in the Vietnamese military and a re-education camp, depressive symptoms, and alcohol consumption. Additional factors associated with current smoking (vs. never smoking) were: being married, having no health insurance, having no doctor visit in the past year, having less knowledge about the harms of smoking, and not having seen anti-tobacco ads. DISCUSSION: California's Vietnamese men smoke at higher rates than men in the general population. Tobacco control efforts targeting Vietnamese men should consider the smoker's social context and community outreach, since current smokers have low health care access, utilization, and knowledge.

Learning Objectives:
1) To describe the statewide smoking prevalence for Vietnamese men in California and compare it with the general population 2) To identify which factors may be associated with smoking status among Vietnamese men in California 3) To formulate potential tobacco control outreach strategies for Vietnamese men in California

Keywords: Tobacco Control, Asian Americans

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was Principal Investigator for this project and directed the research.
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: Tobacco and AI/AN and Asian Pacific Islander communities
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