Assessing the effectiveness of virtual versus in-person peer-motivation smoking cessation interventions for youths and adults

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Research Project #2 – Summary Assessing the effectiveness of virtual versus in-person peer-motivation smoking cessation interventions for youths and adults As the number one preventable killer in the United States, smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 premature deaths each year, including more than 41,000 from secondhand smoke. Health disparities related to tobacco use are widening, and populations with the least income and education suffer the most. Given the addictive nature of nicotine, smoking is a very difficult habit to break. A promising solution is providing comprehensive and effective cessation services at the grassroots level, which requires evidence-based community-owned programs. During the past ten years, the “Communities Engaged and Advocating for Smoke-free Environments” (CEASE) initiative partnership members have surveyed more than 6,000 individuals, designed and tested four phases of community-based smoking cessation interventions (SCI), launched school-based prevention initiatives, and mobilized activists to advocate for healthy policy changes. The proposed project is another community-based participatory research (CBPR) which offers to capitalize on the long-term relationships we have established through our extensive efforts in some of Baltimore’s poorest neighborhoods. We also propose to translate what we learn to support other interventions for health and to disseminate our findings to serve as models for underserved communities across the country. We will continue working with our former partners and welcome new organizations to join the team to enhance the capacity of the partnership. All activities will be based in the facilities allocated to the Community Engagement Core and/or organized by this Core. The target communities are three underserved communities in Baltimore where the main activities will be carried out in the following order: 1) A comprehensive community survey will be conducted for needs assessment, asset mapping, and recruitment to the smoking cessation interventions during the first 2 years of the project; 2) The virtual and enhanced in-person peer- motivation smoking cessation interventions (developed as part of this project) will be tested and refined through a prospective 3-arm (one community for each arm) cluster trial. Given the mixed-method experimental research design, a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data will be collected from various sources and using different tools, which will be used to further enhance the initiatives and inform policies.