Objective: To report lessons learned from an ongoing community partnered intervention regarding multi-level smoking cessation program in the Korean American community in Maryland. Design: Community participatory action research framework. Population, Sample, Setting, Years: The target population is the Korean American (KA) immigrant community in Maryland. This multilevel anti-smoking intervention has several concurrently administered components: (1) an ongoing, structured, behavioral education-based smoking cessation program and support groups; (2) a strategically placed media campaign in the Korean language; and (3) several training sessions targeting health care providers who deal with many KA clients. The program is in its development stage. Concept: Our program strategy is to focus on changing smoking behaviors in the individuals and the community, with the expectation that this comprehensive multi-level anti-smoking intervention will lead to: (1) an increased knowledge level of the health effects produced by smoking; (2) a decreased community tolerance of smoking behaviors, including second-hand smoking; (3) an establishment of a Korean health care provider network of referrals to smoking cessation classes; and (4) a significant reduction in the smoking rate among KA adults and youths. Methods: Traditional outcome and process evaluations will be conducted to evaluate the degree of effectiveness of the program. Findings: The results of the outcome evaluation are not available at present time. Preliminary analysis of the process evaluation (i.e., media campaign) revealed extremely positive responses from the community. Several community organizations were joined in these intervention efforts. More in-depth findings, including lessons learned from this community-partnered intervention program will be presented. Conclusions: Many existing resources to aid smoking cessation efforts in the mainstream community are neither relevant to nor effective for the majority of KA.
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Back to 14th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
10-12 July 2003