Overview: The global challenge of translational behavioral research requires acute attention to the cultural context into which interventions are translated and awareness of the culturallyspecific needs of targeted patients. Formative qualitative research is often used to translate interventions developed for one population to another. We review the role of qualitative methods in "Diabetes Care in American Samoa" a clinical trial of a CHWdelivered intervention. Methods: Formative research included 14 individual interviews (IDI) with medical clinic staff, 6 focus groups (FG) with 39 diabetes patients and 10 cognitive interviews (CI), also with diabetes patients. IDIs and FGs inquired on barriers or facilitators of diabetes care and sought input on planned intervention components. CIs explored the effectiveness and cultural relevancy of a subset of quantitative survey items. NVivo software was used for data management; relevant themes were identified and applied to the Precede-Proceed model to adapt intervention materials. Results: Analysis identified barriers to diabetes self care including preferences for high fat foods, consumption of large quantities at social gatherings, and social expectations to eat large amounts. Facilitators included extended family networks, respect for doctors, and strong religious faith used in support of self care. CIs confirmed linguistic translations, with accommodations for relevant cultural examples within items. The research practice of identifying barriers and facilitators of healthy behavior does not view those cultural elements the way participants do. Therefore, we have also sought to understand how participants see these same behaviors, including their variability. Conclusions: Identifying the cultural meaning of self care-related behaviors is important to designing interventions to address them; qualitative methods are extremely valuable for identifying key cultural features on which to adapt intervention delivery models, materials and measures. This paper uses longitudinal data from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation (ITC) China Survey to examine prospective predictors of smoking cessation among adult smokers in China, and compares them with those found in previous research in two Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia and Thailand) and four Western countries (Australia, Canada, the UK and USA) that are also part of the broader ITC project. In April 2006 a total of 4732 adult smokers were first surveyed in Beijing and other 5 cities in China. Of these, 3863 were successfully followed up in the second Wave in late 2007 (with a retention rate of 81.6%). Baseline measures of sociodemographics, dependence and interest in quitting were used prospectively to predict both making quit attempts and quit success.