Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Smoking Cessation Intervention Tailored to Rural Young Adult African American Men: Toward Scalability

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Abstract Despite smoking fewer cigarettes daily, African American (AA) men suffer higher morbidity and mortality associated with tobacco-related disorders than whites. Our preliminary data shows that 39.9% of AA men between 19 and 30 years of age who resided in rural Alabama smoke cigarettes. Although it has been well established that a combination of pharmacotherapy and advice-oriented counseling and/or cognitive behavioral interventions are efficacious in promoting smoking cessation across diverse populations, these evidence-based treatments for tobacco dependence have not proven to be effective/efficacious (or even accessible) among some subpopulations suffering disproportionally from tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. The overall goal of this feasibility study is to make adaptations to these evidence-based approaches, and develop, implement, and examine the feasibility and scalability of a theory-based, culturally relevant smoking cessation intervention for young adult AA men in rural Alabama who smoke cigarettes. Our formative assessments point to a cognitive- behavioral intervention delivered by a trained Community Health Worker with the support from an “expert” physician who can deliver the pharmacological component via Skype through an integrated approach. The proposed study will address the next three steps in this process: development of the intervention, pretesting, and feasibility. First, we will develop the intervention with input from a Community Advisory Committee, followed by an iterative process by which the target audience will be exposed to materials and messages to provide feedback (pretesting). Once all intervention components are finalized, we will recruit participants, randomly assign them to intervention/control groups, pilot test, and evaluate the intervention. The comparison group will be the Alabama Tobacco Quitline with 8 weeks of Nicotine Replacement Therapy to be consistent with the pharmacological approach proposed for the intervention. The primary outcome will be 7-day point prevalence abstinence (defined as no cigarettes in the past 7 days and verified through measurement of exhaled carbon monoxide levels) at 6- month follow-up. We will also conduct detailed treatment fidelity and scalability assessments (acceptability, feasibility, potential reach and adoption, alignment with the strategic context) to inform a full-scale efficacy trial.