By Tufts Medical Center
Tufts Medical Center’s (Tufts MC) Asian Health Initiative (AHI) was established in 1995 to identify health priorities of particular concern and importance to the local Asian community and to work collaboratively with local community-based organizations to address those health concerns. AHI’s focus in the past few years have been on tobacco/nicotine prevention and cessation support as a mechanism to combat the leading causes of death in Chinatown: heart disease and lung cancer.
In 2020, Tufts MC began a new three-year funding cycle with 5 community partners: Asian American Civic Association, Boston Asian Youth Essential Services, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center, and Josiah Quincy Elementary School. Our partners work with youth to prevent smoking – including traditional tobacco, cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vapes – by conducting anti-tobacco and nicotine health classes at the Josiah Quincy Elementary and Upper Schools and by engaging youth in youth leadership development programs where they learn about the harms of smoking and develop ways to reach and educate their peers. Similarly, our partners target adults and families through culturally and linguistically appropriate educational workshops and media content about the harms of smoking, while providing smoking cessation resources. Our partners also offer referral-based smoking cessation support services, where current smokers are often referred by their family members.
With the dedication and hard work of our community partners, we have increased our community’s perception of the harm that traditional tobacco and e-cigarette products cause with 95% of people surveyed believing smoking traditional tobacco products and its secondhand smoke causes a lot or some harm, while 94% believe the same about e-cigarettes and vapes. Beginning in 2020, our community partners enrolled 27 current smokers in one of their cessation support programs and have helped 4 smokers (15%) quit while 15 smokers (56%) have reduced their consumption by 50%. Our partners’ cessation support programs are uniquely tailored to each individual smoker and ensure that programing is culturally and linguistically appropriate in order to provide effective support. Since cessation support services began in 2017, 22.6% of community members who have enrolled (33 of 146) in one of our partners’ cessation programs have successfully quit; this is almost 3 times the national average of 7.5%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The isolation and added stress of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in increased smoking behaviors in some community members. Taking this into consideration, our community partners transitioned many of their services and programs to virtual platforms in order to continue to serve the community during these uncertain times. Our community partners are continuing to work with the community and prevent non-smokers from starting to smoke through education and awareness in the form of mass media content and educational workshops and health classes, while providing cessation support to current smokers.
“Tufts Medical Center is committed to continuing to support and collaborate with the community to address this challenging community health issue and appreciate the tremendous efforts of our community partners working on prevention and cessation,” said Sherry Dong, Director, Community Health Improvement Programs, Tufts Medical Center.