245765 Tobacco-Related Health Disparities around Tobacco Use and Cessation in Rural Georgia

Monday, October 31, 2011

Simone M. Charles, PhD , Environmental Health Sciences, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA
The literature suggests that the use of tobacco is more prevalent in rural compared to urban communities. Clinch County, a rural county, ranks in the lowest 1/3 of all Georgia counties in health outcomes, access to clinical care, social and economic factors, and health behaviors. Twenty-three percent of its residents report fair or poor health, 14% over 65 is uninsured, 32% of children are in poverty, and only 25% have access to healthy foods. A “Clinch County Tobacco Disparities Coalition” (the Coalition) including juvenile justice workers, nurses, teachers, community leaders, and health department personnel was convened (2008) to identify culturally-relevant ways of eliminating tobacco use, initiation and cessation. We conducted a community assessment which revealed for adults, a greater number of males (36%) were self-reported smokers compared to females (29%), education level was a strong determinant for smoking and smoking risk perception, 30.1% smoke at least 100 cigarettes during their life-time, with 59.0% smoking at least 10 cigarettes per day. For youth, 28.5% youth had puffed a cigarette in the last year, 16.8% use smokeless tobacco, 29% initiated smoking at 13 or 14 years old, 47.6% indicate their parents ‘never' or ‘rarely' discuss dangers of tobacco use, nor does their school have special classes for students wanting to quit. The Coalition identified two disparate groups. A community-based culturally relevant health promotion program was developed encapsulating: community-based strategies; school strategies; public awareness and media advocacy; and policy and enforcement strategies. Our study evaluated the effectiveness of these strategies will be presented.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Learning Objectives: 1. Efficacy of community based participatory research to community health promotion. 2. Best practices for effective culturally-relevant health promotion programs that promote tobacco use, initiation and cessation in rural community adults and youth.

Keywords: Tobacco, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an abstract Author on the content I am responsible for because I have conducted similar studies over the past 5 years.
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.