Needs assessment in Asian American community regarding participation in tobacco prevention efforts

1
Needs assessment in Asian American community
regarding participation in tobacco prevention
efforts

• Manoj Sharma, MBBS, Ph.D.
• University of Cincinnati
• Richard Stacy, MPH, Ed.D.
• University of Nebraska at Omaha

2
Background

• 2002, the "Douglas County Outreach to Ethnic
  Minorities Project" was funded by the state of
  Nebraska under the Tobacco Free Nebraska (TFN)
  Program to engage ethnic minorities in the
  Douglas County
• One of the mandates of the project was to conduct
  an Asian community needs assessment survey with
  regard to attitudes pertaining to participation
  in tobacco prevention efforts by the members of
  this ethnic minority group

3
Instrumentation Process

• In a two-round process a practical, simple, and
  brief survey instrument was developed
• Team for face and content validation of the
  instrument included two staff members from
  Charles Drew Health Center (CDHC) and two
  consultants on the project who were also
  University professors
• Permission to conduct the survey was obtained
  from the Director of Charles Drew Health Center

4
Instrument

• First 5 questions elicited the rating on the
  importance of
• (1) parental action for prevention of tobacco
  use,
• (2) community action for prevention of tobacco
  use
• (3) parental action to make homes smoke free
• (4) parental action to make their vehicles smoke
  free
• (5) involvement of children/youth for prevention
  of tobacco use.
• The next set of questions were designed to elicit
  information about perceived influence by
  community members on children/youth regarding
  five possible sources, namely,
• (1) advertisement of tobacco products
• (2) placement of tobacco products
• (3) smoking by adults in public places
• (4) smoking by adults in restaurants
• (5) smoking by adults on school property.
• The next two questions asked about the extent of
  current involvement with community projects and
  community coalitions aimed at preventing
  children/youth from using tobacco
• The next set of questions were aimed at eliciting
  response regarding possible interest in selected
  activities, namely, their participation in
  community projects and coalitions for preventing
  children/youth from using tobacco, and
  involvement of their children/youth in such
  projects
• The next section was about their using
  cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and perceptions
  about their child smoking cigarettes and
  smokeless tobacco.
• Final section was the demographic data

5
Data Collection Analyses

• Since a listing of Asian community members in
  Douglas County is not available and the number is
  also small it was envisaged that using a fixed
  quota sample would be collecting information from
  at least 200 respondents
• Owing to practical constraints she was able to
  collect information from only 41 respondents
• All collected questionnaires were arranged and
  coded, data entered and analyzed in SPSS
  (Statistical Package for Social Sciences),
  Version 10.0

6
Distribution of Demographic Variables

• Largest number of respondents were from Japanese
  origin (37.5) with representation from the
  Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Nepalese, and Thai
  communities
• Gender was equally distributed

7
Distribution of Needs Assessment Variables

• Regarding perceived importance of parents taking
  action in preventing their children/ youth from
  using tobacco none of the respondents felt that
  parental action is not at all important
• However, a majority (58.5) felt that this role
  was slightly or moderately important.
• This indicates that educational programs can make
  some difference by improving perceived parental
  responsibility in reducing tobacco use by
  children/youth.

8
Importance of making homes tobacco free

• Majority (58.5) of the respondents felt that
  making their homes tobacco free for their
  children/ youth was not at all important, only
  slightly important, or moderately important
• This clearly indicates a deficit in the perceived
  importance regarding this important piece for
  reducing the harmful effects of secondhand smoke
  on children
• This gap can be easily bridged by targeted
  educational efforts for this subsection of the
  community.

9
Importance of making vehicles tobacco free

• Majority (85.4) of the respondents felt that
  making their vehicles tobacco free for their
  children/ youth was not at all important, only
  slightly important, or only moderately important
• This clearly indicates a deficit in the perceived
  importance regarding this important piece for
  reducing the harmful effects of secondhand smoke
  on children
• This gap can be easily bridged by targeted
  educational efforts for this subsection of the
  community.

10
Importance of children/youth getting involved in
projects

• Only 36.4 rated this aspect as very important or
  extremely important
• This indicates that majority were not convinced
  that getting children/youth involved in projects
  is going to be very useful

11
Influence of tobacco product advertisements

• None of the respondents thought that
  advertisements played very little or little
  influence
• Majority of the respondents were convinced of the
  role played by advertisements
• Previous educational efforts seemed to have done
  an excellent job in this regard and there is no
  need to further substantiate this message

12
Placement of tobacco products in stores

• Regarding perceived influence by community
  members on tobacco use by children/youth
  regarding the way tobacco products are placed in
  stores an overwhelming majority (97.6) of the
  respondents were convinced of the deleterious
  role of tobacco product placement in stores
• No need for current educational efforts to tailor
  messages in this regard for this subsection of
  the community

13
Influence of smoking by adults in public places

• Distribution on perceived influence by community
  members on children/youth regarding the smoking
  by adults in public places was in the middle of
  the range
• Educational messages that increase outcry on this
  issue are needed that will decrease acceptance of
  the behavior of public smoking by adults.

14
Community Involvement

• Disheartening to note that an overwhelming
  majority (more than 95) of this subsection has
  not been involved in tobacco prevention efforts
• Future outreach efforts in involving the
  under-involved ethnic minorities must be
  undertaken with greater enthusiasm

15
Interest in Involvement

• At least two third (68.3) of the people from
  this section of the minority community are at
  least somewhat or a lot interested in getting
  involved
• The gap between actual involvement and this
  interest clearly needs bridging by involving more
  Asians in efforts for planning, implementing, and
  evaluating tobacco prevention efforts.

16
Distribution of smoking related behaviors

• Regarding smoking cigarettes, about 28 percent of
  the respondents reported smoking cigarettes,
  which is higher than the overall smoking rates in
  Douglas County, Nebraska and the nation
• Reinforces the need for concerted tobacco
  prevention efforts for this subsection of the
  community