It's Time to "Come Out" as a Non-Smoker: An Engaging and Culturally Appropriate Smoking Cessation Program Plan and Evaluation for LGBT Youth
Creators: name: Mackey, Daniel
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2015

description: Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the world, and accounts for over 400,000 deaths each year just in the United States. Sexual orientation has an effect on the prevalence of smoking rates; a growing body of literature indicates lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals smoke at rates that are two times higher than their heterosexual counterparts. LGBT youth are a subgroup of high concern because studies show this population has higher and growing rates of smoking compared to their heterosexual peers. This is alarming because the earlier the age of onset, the more significant the risk is for smoking well into adulthood. Studies have shown that LGBT youth are less likely to want to quit smoking than heterosexual youth. The LGBT population, especially the LGBT youth population experience unique cultural and psychosocial factors, such as minority stress, that contribute to their smoking behaviors. LGBT youth represent an important underserved priority group, and it is crucial we begin to understand factors that influence smoking behavior while they are still young, because this is the window of opportunity where cessation programs have the greatest impact. The literature shows just a few smoking cessation interventions that are culturally tailored specifically for the LGBT population, and my search of the literature found no results for culturally tailored interventions specifically for the LGBT youth population. With treatment quit rates for the LGBT targeted cessation interventions comparable or better then the quit rates for the cessation programs for the general population, I wanted to develop a culturally tailored smoking cessation program that will be targeted specifically for LGBT youth. I chose to modify the QueerTIPs for LGBT Smokers: A Stop Smoking Class for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Communities because this intervention was based off the successful The Last Drag LGBT intervention and best practice strategies developed by the American Lung Association's Freedom from Smoking and the American Cancer Society's FreshStart. QueerTIPS addressed issues that were unique to LGBT smokers who are attempting to quit. This paper describes the changes I made to the QueerTIPs intervention to make it appropriate for the LGBT youth population - most notably I added a fun and engaging activity and a food component to each session - and the program planning and evaluation strategies that are necessary for a successful implementation. A review of the culturally tailored smoking cessation interventions that have been used for LGBT adults, and a review of the non-intervention studies targeting attitudes and perceptions toward cessation for youths, LGBT youths, or LGBT adults, which both reviews helped guide the development of my program. The evaluation plan utilizes a mixed-methods approach by incorporating both surveys and interviews to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data, which will better inform me and the stakeholders on how to further improve upon this smoking cessation intervention and help reduce the smoking disparity of the hard to reach LGBT youth population.