 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Nadine L. Chan, MPH1, Beti Thompson, PhD, Victoria M. Taylor, MD, MPH3, Yutaka Yasui, PhD3, Elizabeth Acorda, BA3, and J. Carey Jackson, MD, MA, MPH4. (1) Public Health Sciences Division/Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., MP702, PO Box 19024, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, 206-667-7569, nlchan@fhcrc.org, (2) Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, PO Box 19024, MP702, 1100 Fairview Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109-1024, (3) Division of General Internal Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, Box 359780, 325 Ninth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104
Introduction: Smoking prevalence among Vietnamese men, ranging up to 43% in the United States, is far from the Healthy People 2010 objective to reduce cigarette smoking in adults to 12%. However, little is known about smoking attitudes among men in this community. Methods: We conducted an in-person health survey of Vietnamese men in Seattle, Washington during 2002. Trained bicultural, bilingual male interviewers interviewed 509 adult males in Vietnamese households (response rate of 79%). The 37-item smoking section of the questionnaire includes items about smoking, knowledge, and attitudes. Our respondents were knowledgeable about the health effects of first-hand and second-hand smoke, often with over 80% answering the questions in this section correctly. While 64% of the respondents were former or current smokers, not everyone was asked if they smoked at their last routine check-up (72%). Most of our respondents had friends who smoke (94%). Attitudes about smoking showed more acceptance for male smokers than for female smokers. 30% of respondents thought it was appropriate for Vietnamese men to smoke with friends compared to the 2% who thought it was appropriate for Vietnamese women to smoke with friends. Current smokers reported smoking when there were feeling depressed (89%), when drinking (90%), and with friends (96%). Conclusion: There still exists a high prevalence of smoking among Vietnamese men. Our findings suggest a couple areas of focus when designing smoking cessation interventions for this community: in addition to emphasizing the health effects of smoking, we should also decrease the social acceptance of smoking in the community.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Smoking, Asian Americans
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.