A policy approach to stamp out smoking in minority faith-based communities in rural Arkansas

Historically, African-American churches are at the center of civic and social change in local communities.  Churches are able to influence the behaviors of its members and the surrounding community on many levels.  Now, churches are seeking to extend resources beyond meeting the basic spiritual needs of its members and the community. With the more than 47,000 African-Americans that die each year from tobacco related diseases and tobacco use prevalence rates almost twice the national rate in some rural Arkansas counties , African-American churches play a pivotal role in changing society’s norms regarding tobacco use.  Using principles of community-based participatory research, the church cessation and research project uses a combination of direct contact and product development to facilitate the adoption of 35 tobacco-free campus policies in rural Arkansas African-American churches. With implications for the broader impact pending, preliminary results of the project indicate the applicability of Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory constructs with policy adopters.