RC-2006-0023
Title: Understanding Behaviors, Values, Motivations and Recommendations of Latino
subgroups in Developing Effective Community-based Tobacco Cessation Programs
Applicant Organization: Centro Campesino
Principal Investigator: Michael C. Rodriguez, PhD
Amount of award: $128,904
Length of award: 18 months
Type of award: Developmental CARA
ABSTRACT
Centro Campesino’s Health Promoter Project in partnership with HACER (Hispanic
Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research) and University of
Minnesota associate professor Dr. Michael C. Rodriguez intends to carry out a
developmental research project entitled Understanding Behaviors, Values, Motivations
and Recommendations of Latino Subgroups in Developing Effective Community-based
Tobacco Cessation Programs. The target population for this project includes Latino/a
adults in south central Minnesota. The objectives of this project are:





Organize project partners, community members and stakeholders in a
collaborative effort that seeks to understand tobacco use and tobacco cessation in
the context of a diverse Latino population;
Identify and prioritize high-risk, Latino subgroups in south central Minnesota
based on health and tobacco-related indicators;
Explore the use of an asset-oriented approach in understanding Latino subgroups’
behaviors, values, and motivations associated with not using tobacco;
Investigate underlying cultural values, behaviors and motivations of Latino
subgroups and propose how this understanding can inform the development of
more effective, targeted, tobacco cessation programs;
Use findings from this project to develop a proposal for a Full CommunityAcademic Research Award (CARA).
Our developmental research project addresses priority Research Area 111(a). This
priority focuses on research that determines effective tobacco cessation interventions for
priority populations in Minnesota. Specifically, we are requesting the full amount of the
research award from RC-06-07, Developmental Community-Academic Research Awards
(Developmental CARA).
Need and Rationale for the Project: According to the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC), 12.9% of Latino adults in Minnesota are current smokers, which is nearly half the
prevalence of smoking among Whites and African Americans. However, this is due in
part to the low prevalence of smoking among Latina women. On a national level, lung
cancer deaths are about three times higher for Latino men, and in fact, lung cancer is the
leading cause of cancer deaths among Latinos. To the extent that Latinos are now the
largest racial/ethnic minority group in the nation, one of the fastest growing populations
in Minnesota, and a population that faces relatively limited access to health care services
compared to other racial/ethnic groups, conducting research to improve current tobacco
cessation efforts among Latino populations not only is imperative but is consistent with
MPAAT’s mission to enhance life for all Minnesotans by reducing tobacco use and
exposure to secondhand smoke through research, action, and collaboration.
Much of the research on tobacco cessation in Minnesota tends to treat priority
racial/ethnic populations as broad homogenous groups. Although efforts have been made
to tailor tobacco cessation interventions to Latinos (as a broad, ethnic group), little has
been done to understand how targeting specific Latino subgroups can improve the
success of these interventions in Minnesota. In the literature, when subgroups have been
defined they often are based on age, gender, and country of origin. Additional subgroups
can be defined in various ways, such as: level of acculturation, language proficiency,
level of education, community of origin in country of emigration, immigration status and
level of income to name a few.
Furthermore, few studies have taken an asset-oriented approach to understanding
Latino subgroups as they relate to tobacco cessation and to developing effective tobacco
cessation programs for Latinos in Minnesota. Given the success of asset oriented
approaches in education and the role of education in tobacco cessation, we feel that
exploring an asset-oriented approach in tobacco cessation is worthwhile. In using
participatory research methods to appropriately define subgroups within Latino
communities, we anticipate the primary outcome of this project to be data that informs
the development of more effective, and/or improvement of, targeted tobacco cessation
programs. Key research questions for this project will include:





What research on tobacco cessation has investigated Latino subgroups?
What research on tobacco cessation has taken an asset-oriented perspective
toward understanding tobacco cessation in Latino communities?
How have subgroups been defined? Which subgroups are most appropriate?
Which subgroups exhibit the most/least smoking behavior within the south central
Minnesota region?
What are the behaviors, values and motivations of the Latino subgroups of south
central Minnesota as they relate to tobacco use and tobacco cessation? How do
they differ? What do they share?
In what way can an asset-oriented, subgroup analysis help to make tobacco
cessation interventions more effective and thus engage more Latinos in tobacco
cessation programs?
Latino community members, researchers and service providers will be equal partners
throughout this participatory, research development process. They will learn about how
the strengths and assets of their communities must be addressed alongside deficits such as
health risk behaviors like tobacco use. In addition they will learn how those strengths and
assets can prevent tobacco use and can help them, their families and other members of
their community to stop using tobacco.
Methodology: Major components of this research development project include: a
literature review and determination of appropriateness of an asset-oriented approach;
advisory committee and workgroup meetings to facilitate a participatory research
development process throughout all stages of the project; IRB approval to ensure the
protection of vulnerable research subjects; qualitative data collection including eight
focus groups (two focus groups per subgroup) and comparative analysis of data between
the individual subgroups; and finalization of a proposal for a Full Study design and
completion of the final summary report. The research development process specifically
involves identifying priority tobacco-related concerns among Latinos, identification of
health and tobacco- related indicators to measure the severity of concerns, and final
selection and prioritization of Latino subgroups based on quantitative and qualitative
data. For a detailed project plan that describes the tasks and timelines of each of the four
phases of this project, see Attachment A: Tasks and Timelines Gantt Chart 2006—2007.