SS 13.30-15.00 Special sessions

THE "YES, I QUIT" SMOKING CESSATION COURSE: MEETING THE NEED FOR SMOKING CESSATION RESOURCES FOR WOMEN IN LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES

Objectives

To develop and implement in local volunteer organizations a tailored smoking cessation programme for low-income, low-education women. To identify the barriers and facilitators to programme implementation.

Methods

A structured development plan was followed which included 1) a need analysis; 2) the creation of a steering committee composed of community representatives; 3) refinement and pilot testing of the intervention and 4) diffusion. Formative evaluation included several focus group interviews with samples of the target clientele and interviews with key community leaders and organizations. Implementation evaluation involved interviews with staff, journals from lay intervention agents and review of the minutes of meetings of the project staff.

Results

Four local community groups participated in the development of the intervention and delivered a total of 13 smoking cessation courses over 5 years. The tailored course involved small groups of participants to optimize social interactions; a dynamic participatory and interactive format; a nonprofessional course animator; minimal reading and writing, use of visual educational material; short sequenced and varied activities to maintain attention span and no cost to participants. The cost of implementing the workshop was $ 26 CAN per participant and $ 125 CAN per quitter at six months.

Conclusion

The results suggest that it is possible to implement low-cost community-based cessation programmes in low-income communities, although recruitment of participants is problematic in spite of removing many barriers to accessibility.

Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Smoke Free Europe Conference Abstracts - 19 SEP 1996

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