title: Eliminating tobacco-related disparities among Pacific Islanders through leadership and capacity building: promising practices and lessons learned.
abstract: Tobacco remains a major risk factor for premature death and ill health among Pacific Islanders, and tobacco-related disparities persist. Eliminating these disparities requires a comprehensive approach to transform community norms about tobacco use through policy change, as contained in the World Health Organization international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Three of the six U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands-the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands-are Parties to the Framework; the remaining three territories-American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam-are excluded from the treaty by virtue of U.S. nonratification. Capacity building and leadership development are essential in achieving policy change and health equity within Pacific Islander communities. We describe promising practices from American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, and Palau and highlight some of the key lessons learned in supporting and sustaining the reduction in tobacco use among Pacific Islanders as the first step toward eliminating tobacco-related disparities in these populations.
authors.affiliation: Health Partners, LLC, Tamuning, Guam.
authors.forename: Annette M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: David
authors.forename: Rod
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lew
authors.forename: Annabel K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lyman
authors.forename: Caleb
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Robles
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Cruz
mesh_terms: D057191:Capacity Building / Q000458:organization & administration; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D044468:Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation
keywords: Pacific Islander; minority health; public health laws/policies; tobacco prevention and control