Effectiveness of tobacco control among Chinese Americans: a comparative analysis of policy approaches versus community-based programs.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the effectiveness of a tailored multicomponent community-based smoking cessation intervention among Chinese immigrants living in New York City, implemented within the context of state and city-wide tobacco control policy initiatives for the general population.


METHODS
A pre-post-test quasi-experimental design with representative samples from Chinese populations living in two communities in New York City: Flushing, Queens, the intervention community and Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the comparison community. From November 2002 to August 2003 baseline interviews were conducted with 2537 adults aged 18-74. In early 2006, 1384 participants from the original cohort completed the follow-up interview. During the intervention period (October 2003 to September 2005), both communities were exposed to tobacco control public policy changes. However, only Flushing received additional linguistically and culturally-specific community-level tobacco control interventions.


RESULTS
From 2002 to 2006 overall smoking prevalence among Chinese immigrants declined from 17.7% to 13.6%, a relative 23% decrease. After controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, there was an absolute 3.3% decrease in smoking prevalence attributed to policy changes with an additional absolute decline in prevalence of 2.8% in the intervention community relative to the control community.


CONCLUSIONS
City-wide tobacco control policies are effective among high-risk urban communities, such as Chinese immigrants. In addition, community-based tailored tobacco control interventions may increase the reduction in smoking prevalence rates beyond that achieved from public policies.
Shelley
Donna
D
New York University College of Densitry, 423 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010, USA. ds186@nyu.edu
Fahs
Marianne
M
Yerneni
Rajeev
R
Das
Dhiman
D
Nguyen
Nam
N
Hung
Dorothy
D
Burton
Dee
D
Chin
Margaret
M
Chang
Ming-der
MD
Cummings
K Michael
KM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001213:Asian; D019058:Community Networks; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D055815:Young Adult