Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111569

G. Simone Koehlinger, PsyD¹, Scott C. Cook, PhD¹, Chris Powers, BA¹, and David J. McKirnan, PhD². (1) Department of Research, Howard Brown Health Center, 4025 North Sheridan, Chicago, IL 60613, 773.388.8885, scottc@howardbrown.org, (2) Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 West Harrison Street, Mail Code 285, Chicago, IL 60607-7137

Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender (LGBT) people are more likely to be smokers than the general population. Despite this acknowledged health disparity, cessation programs are rarely customized for these populations. An adapted curriculum is necessary to addressing disparity in smoking behavior. The Queer Tobacco Elimination and Control Collaboration (Q-TECC) developed and studied the effectiveness of smoking cessation groups specifically tailored for the LGBT community.

Q-TECC is comprised of three Chicagoland agencies, each serving a specific subgroup of the LGBT community. Specific populations targeted include African American men who have sex with men (MSM), Latino MSM, White/Other MSM, women who have sex with women, and Transgender people. We conducted fifteen smoking cessation groups (three of which were in Spanish), enrolling 95 participants.

Q-TECC investigators and staff utilized a program that is highly structured, resource rich, focused on behavior change, and relevant to the LGBT community. All collaborating agencies provided input to create a culturally sensitive LGBT focused standard behavioral smoking cessation program. We used a combination of the American Lung Association's Freedom from Smoking cessation protocol with QueerTIPS for LGBT Smokers: A Stop Smoking Class for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Communities.

We will describe the curriculum development process, including nine focus groups to assess the LGBT community's attitudes and beliefs about cigarette smoking and anti-smoking interventions. We will report on the format of the groups, the recruitment process, and provide both case examples and quantitative data about participant reaction to this unique smoking cessation program.

Learning Objectives:

• • Recognize the importance of addressing specific needs of the LGBT smoker
• • Describe the development process of a smoking cessation group intervention for LGBT
• • Identify the important aspects of an effective intervention for the LGBT community

Keywords: Gay, Tobacco

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.