A COMPREHENSIVE NATIONAL MINORITY INTERVENTION IN TOBACCO CONTROL

Tobacco use is a major cancer risk among minorities, as evidenced by t heir high cancer mortality rates compared with white populations. Prio r public health prevention efforts have concentrated on affecting indi vidual behavior change through education and smoking-cessation techniq ues. The American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST) project, wh ich is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the American Can cer Society, is a 7-year research and applications project designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of coalition-based policy interventions on smoking prevention and cessation. ASSIST places major emphasis on the involvement of minority populations in this project as well as all women and youth. Minority involvement is evident through 1) represent ation and leadership on all levels of ASSIST policy development and ad ministration; 2) inclusion of minority components in all national ASSI ST conferences, including minority recruitment, coalition development, and sustainability design; 3) provision of specialized technical assi stance and training to the 17 states by the ASSIST Coordinating Center ; and 4) incorporation of minority specific activities in the various ASSIST states. Outcome evaluation of the effectiveness of the ASSIST a pproach will be conducted after the project's completion in 1998. Howe ver, early indicators show a marked increase in minority participation . Between 1994 and 1996, there has been an almost four-fold increase i n proposed activities to reach underserved and minority communities. M ost ASSIST states have formed multicultural coalitions. These results show that 1) intervention models emphasizing community-based policy ac tivities in cancer prevention can address multicultural concerns succe ssfully, 2) linkages with groups with similar multicultural interests increase the likelihood and success of joint cancer control efforts, a nd 3) policy-based interventions are more likely to have a pronounced effect on decreasing smoking and cancer prevalence than education prog rams or individual smoking-cessation efforts alone. Cancer 1998;83:179 3-5. (C) 1998 American Cancer Society.