Abstract
A description of the use of indigenous lay health educators as they participated in the implementation of a community-based smoking cessation program is provided. The target population was young black women who resided in several urban public housing developments. The intervention, which was conducted in tandem with a larger televised smoking cessation program, consisted of either class sessions conducted by or reminder visits from community lay health educators. The lay health educators were successful in organizing this population, often viewed as difficult to reach, to become more aware of the dangers of smoking and to become more interested in participating in a structured smoking cessation program. They motivated 235 individuals to sign up for the program; of these, 141 attended at least one class session or accepted at least an initial reminder visit. The results suggest that lay health educators may be able to mobilize this population to participate in health promotion programs. However, due to differences in this population related to smoking, the findings indicate that new methods must be developed for sustaining their involvement after they have been reached.
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Loretta Lacey, RN, Dr PH., is Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Sheila Tukes, MA, is former Project Coordinator, Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Clara Manfredi, PhD, is Associate Director for Special Populations, Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago; and Richard B. Warnecke, PhD, is Director, Survey Research Laboratory, and Professor of Sociology and Epidemiology-Biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Supported by Grant CA42760 from the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services. We thank Robert Michielutte, PhD, Department of Community Medicine, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, for his critical review and comments on the manuscript. Appreciation is expressed to Mary A. Spaeth for editorial review.
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Lacey, L., Tukes, S., Manfredi, C. et al. Use of lay health educators for smoking cessation in a hard-to-reach urban community. J Community Health 16, 269–282 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01320335
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01320335