Abstract IA39: A family-focused lay health worker approach to promote smoking cessation, healthy eating, and physical activity among Asian Americans

Abstract

Abstract Cigarette use, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity are the leading modifiable risk factors for cancer. These preventable risk factors remain prevalent among some Asian American groups. For example, smoking prevalence remains disproportionately high among Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese immigrant men with limited English proficiency. More than half of Asian American adults do not meet physical activity recommendations (at least 150 minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise weekly) or have a body-mass index (BMI) above the WHO recommended cut-off point for Asian populations (at BMI >23). The Healthy Family Project, a community-based research program to promote healthy living among Asian Americans, was started in 2012 with research support from the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The program developed a family-focused lay health worker intervention to promote smoking cessation by engaging both current smokers and their families together with their peers. Since 2012, the Healthy Family Project has expanded to address multiple risks factors beyond cigarette smoking to include reduction of secondhand smoke exposure and promotion of healthy eating and physical activity among at-risk Asian Americans. The intervention curriculum is available in Chinese, English, Korean, and Vietnamese languages. A new program targeting Korean Americans is being launched in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the fall of 2018. Since 2012, the Healthy Family Project has delivered the intervention to more than 520 smoker-family dyads (or >1,000 individuals). The program has been able to successfully engage participants who are not ready to quit smoking and have little knowledge of the recommended nutrition or physical activity levels. The program completion rates across different trials have been consistently above 95%, and follow-up rates at 3 to 12 months are above 90%. The presentation will highlight the health risk behavior profile of 680 Asian Americans enrolled in one of the ongoing trials, present the Healthy Family Project intervention model, and discuss current health behavior outcomes and implications. A family-focused lay health worker approach is a promising intervention platform to promote health behavior change and facilitate cancer prevention education in Asian American communities. Citation Format: Janice Y. Tsoh. A family-focused lay health worker approach to promote smoking cessation, healthy eating, and physical activity among Asian Americans [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr IA39.