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Reducing Tobacco-Related Health Disparities: Using Mass Media Campaigns to Prevent Smoking and Increase Cessation in Underserved Populations

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Handbook of African American Health

Abstract

Mass media campaigns can be effectively used to reduce youth smoking prevalence and promote adult cessation within the general population, particularly when combined with other tobacco control efforts (CDC, 2007; National Cancer Institute, 2008). As a result, mass media campaigns are one of the CDC’s recommended “best practices” for tobacco control (CDC, 2007). However, there is less evidence about the effectiveness of mass media campaigns to prevent or reduce smoking among socioeconomically disadvantaged or racial and ethnic minority populations. In general, evaluations of youth prevention campaigns have not included analyses by socioeconomic status (SES). Analyses by race/ethnicity have been conducted inconsistently – even by evaluators of “model” youth campaigns – and some studies have used such crude measures of race and ethnicity that it is difficult to interpret the findings. A recent review of the studies evaluating adult smoking cessation campaigns finds that they are often less effective among low SES smokers as compared with high SES smokers (Fagan, 2008; Niederdeppe, Fiore, Baker, & Smith, 2008; Niederdeppe, Kuang, Crock, & Skelton, 2008). Even among those campaigns that are specifically designed to reach low SES audiences, there are mixed or inconclusive results (Niederdeppe, Kuang, et al., 2008). Like youth campaigns, adult smoking cessation campaigns are not routinely evaluated by race/ethnicity; those that have been yield mixed results in terms of campaign effectiveness (Bala, Strzeszynski, & Cahill, 2008).

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  1. American Legacy Foundation, Washington, DC, USA

    Jane A. Allen, Donna M. Vallone & Amanda K. Richardson

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  1. Jane A. Allen
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  2. Donna M. Vallone
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Correspondence to Jane A. Allen .

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  1. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, Tenth Ave. 899, New York, 10019, New York, USA

    Anthony J. Lemelle

  2. , Sociology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State, Blacksburg, 24061, USA

    Wornie Reed

  3. , Sociology and Criminal Justice, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, 30314, Georgia, USA

    Sandra Taylor

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Allen, J.A., Vallone, D.M., Richardson, A.K. (2011). Reducing Tobacco-Related Health Disparities: Using Mass Media Campaigns to Prevent Smoking and Increase Cessation in Underserved Populations. In: Lemelle, A., Reed, W., Taylor, S. (eds) Handbook of African American Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9616-9_5

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