The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #57907

Tung T. Nguyen, MD¹, Celia P Kaplan, DrPH², Ginny Gildengorin, PhD², Sarah Kaplan, MA², and Stephen SJ McPhee, MD³. (1) Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0320, San Francisco, CA 94143, 415-502-1539, tung@itsa.ucsf.edu, (2) Medical Effectiveness Research Center for Diverse Populations, University of California San Francisco, Box 0856, 3333 California Street, Suite 335, San Francisco, CA 94143, (3) Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project, University of California, San Francisco, 44 Page St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102

Background: Smoking prevalence varies among Asian subgroups. Asian American adolescents may have different attitudes toward smoking. Methods: In 1998-1999, using listed surnames, we conducted a telephone survey of Chinese and Vietnamese aged 12-17 in California. Questions included the adolescent’s age, gender, birthplace, language acculturation, smoking status and susceptibility, tobacco marketing susceptibility, attitudes toward smoking, smoking status of friends, siblings, and parents, and parents’ socio-demographics. We constructed 4 attitude scales: physiological/psychological reasons for smoking (PPRS), attitudes toward smokers (ATS), social aspects of smoking (SAS), and safety of smoking (SS). Scores ranged from 5 to 15 with increasing scores correlating to more pro-smoking attitudes. Results: There were 639 Chinese and 631 Vietnamese participants (response rate=33%). Chinese and Vietnamese adolescents did not differ significantly in rates of smoking initiation (12.8% and 9.9%) or current smoking (3.3% and 2.2%). Non-smokers susceptible to smoking had significantly (p<0.01) higher scores than non-susceptible non-smokers for PRRS (mean score 9.1 vs. 7.5), ATS (7.9 vs. 6.2), SAS (5.8 vs. 5.4), and SS (8.1 vs. 7.5). Vietnamese were significantly more likely than Chinese to have pro-smoking attitudes on ATS (6.62 vs. 6.27), SAS (5.77 vs. 5.13), and SS (7.97 vs. 7.24). In multivariate analyses, ethnic differences remained significant. Adolescents with smoking friends, siblings, or parents had more pro-smoking attitudes on 3 (PPRS, ATS, SAS), 2 (PPRS, ATS) or 1 (SAS) scale, respectively. Conclusions: Vietnamese had more pro-smoking attitudes than Chinese adolescents. Research is needed to understand smoking attitudes and behavior among Asian American youths.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand smoking-related attitudes differences between Chinese and Vietnamese adolescents.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.