A Multi-City Community Based Smoking Research Intervention Project in the African-American Population

Objective: To carry out a community-based research approach to determine the most effective educational interventions to reduce smoking among African-American smokers. The intervention included preparation of the community, planning and developing a model of change, and developing a community-based intervention. The study population consisted of 2,544 randomly selected adult African-American smokers residing in four sites in the northeastern and southeastern parts of the United States. The research design provided a comparison of active intervention sites with passive control sites as well as low income and moderate income areas. Major Outcome Measures: Point prevalence of non-smoking at the time of interview; Period prevalence of non-smoking at the time of interview; Period prevalence of quit attempts in the prior six months; Number of smoke-free days in the prior six months; Number of cigarettes smoked daily at the time of interview. Results: Based upon a survey eighteen months after baseline data was collected, all four measures of cigarette smoking behavior showed a strong statistically significant reduction of personal smoking behavior among those receiving active interventions versus the passive group. On the basis of process variable analysis, direct contact with the project staff in the prior six months was significantly higher in the active intervention areas. There was only a small non-significant increase in personal smoking behavior in moderate income groups as opposed to low income groups. Conclusion: An analysis of process variables strongly suggests that, within this African-American Community, “hands on” or “face to face” approaches along with mass media, mailings, and other less personal approaches were more effective in reducing personal smoking behavior than media, mailings, and other impersonal approaches alone addressed to large audiences.