New Tobacco Research Finds Minnesota's Latino Population Smoking Significantly Less than General ...(an earlier age said Jesse Bethke Gomez p...),Health

Date:12/4/2008

an earlier age," said Jesse Bethke Gomez, president of CLUES. "The tobacco industry disproportionately targets the Latino community, so we must continue to use culturally competent tobacco cessation programs for our communities and commence a call to action to Latino families to drive down the rate among men, and prevent women and children from ever starting to smoke."

While much work remains to reduce tobacco use among Latino communities, there is some good news:

-- Most current Latino smokers in Minnesota have tried to quit -- 74 percent reported quitting for a day or more within the 12 months before the study.

-- Nearly all Latinos are well-informed about the health risks of smoking -- 99 percent are aware smoking causes lung cancer, 93 percent are aware smoking causes heart disease.

-- Nearly all Latinos, 91 percent, report they don't allow smoking in their homes. The rate was even higher, 94 percent, for those with children in the home.

This report affirms that cultural values, such as the Latino emphasis on family, can be leveraged to create more culturally appropriate and effective tobacco control programs. Existing programs will continue to address cultural barriers, such as the tendency not to ask for help, which prevent smokers from using counseling and stop-smoking medications to quit.

CLUES is using this new quantitative data to train 20 Minnesota State University - Mankato students and 10 rural community health workers (promotores). They will use this information when speaking with community members about how to quit smoking. Another 250 health professionals are expected to learn about the data and its uses at the Second Latino Community Health Workers Conference of Minnesota this Saturday, December 6, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center for Community Building in St. Paul. Communities are urged to conti
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SOURCE Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Copyright©2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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