La Familia Sana is currently in the midst of a three year project funded by the Oregon Health Division to bring awareness of the dangerous effects of second-hand tobacco to Hispanic communities in all parts of Oregon. This is done by training organizations which already serve the Hispanic community in the issues surrounding tobacco use, and how best to approach their clients to prevent or modify tobacco use.
Background
The United States, long priding itself as a nation of immigrants, is well on the way to becoming an Hispanic nation. Between 1980 and 1990, while the population of the country as a whole grew by only 9.8%, the Hispanic population grew 53.0% (slightly under the growth of the Mexican population in America at 54.4%).
In Oregon, although the official 1990 census put Hispanics at only 4% of the population, between 1980 and 1990 the population of Hispanics in some of the most populus counties more than doubled, e.g. Clackamas, Washington, Marion, and Umatilla, while that of Multnomah increased by more than 60%. There were 12 counties with more than 2500 Hispanics: Malheur, Umatilla, Klamath, Jackson, Lane, Polk, Marion, Yamhill, Clackamas, Washington, Multnomah, and Flood River. Persons of Mexican descent made up over 75% of the Hispanics in Oregon.
Figures on smoking are more difficult to discover. The Oregon Health Division reports 27% of all Oregon Hispanics aged 35-64 smoke. There is a significant difference in gender. Approximately 56% of males and 41% of females over 18 either currently or previously smoked. Among Hispanic teens in Oregon, approximately 21% of both males and females smoke, essentially no different than their Anglo counterparts for males, and somewhat higher than Angla females.
What is striking about these figures are issues about which there appear to be no data available, but which any organization, such as La Familia Sana, that works with Hispanic migrant or seasonal workers well knows qualitatively. When Hispanics/Latinos immigrate to the United States, a high percentage of men smoke, but almost no other family members (wives and children) do. After a few years of acculturation, some women and many children begin smoking. Insofar as Hispanic Oregon is a state of recent immigrants from Latin America (which on the whole it is), the statistics in the paragraph above suggest that only a few years after arriving in the state, the wives and children of Latino immigrants have largely abandoned the cultural taboos around smoking they came here with, and have taken up a deadly habit. The problem that presents itself is, therefore, how to convey enough accurate information in a timely, culturally appropriate, and effective manner so that families can lessen the impact of second-hand smoke, so that women and children do not initiate smoking, and so that men are encouraged to cease smoking.
Project design
We designed and implemented a culturally and linguistically appropriate project which would increase the capacity of local organizations serving the Hispanic community to address the issues of (1) education for the family as to the effects of second-hand smoke thus reducing exposure to it, (2) education towards prevention of initiation by women and children, (3) education to encourage cessation by current smokers, and (4) collection of qualitative data that may help us and others to design future projects.
We are doing this in the Oregon counties with the highest proportions of Hispanics/Latinos, by developing a series of partnerships with organizations which already serve the local Hispanic community and who are well familiar with the needs and particularities of that community. In this manner, we maximize the fiscal impact of the OHD grant, by training trainers who will spread the word further and more effectively than we could hope to do within the available budget. Our trainings are free of cost to the trainees, upon their commitment to make a specified number of contacts, involving a specified number of Hispanic/Latino contactees, providing education to encourage the attainment of the goals listed above. Trainings are held at sites most convenient to the trainees.
The organizations trained in our methodology (popular education) and in the content of tobacco prevention and education then use their natural access points in the local Hispanic communities, such as parents' and youth groups for Migrant Head Start, field clinics and direct patient services for Community Health Centers, workplaces for community advocacy groups, church halls for churches, etc., to convey the messages of prevention and cessation. As these groups are already well attuned to the communities they serve, they are able to utilize members of the target community to adapt our training to their particular circumstances for the highest degree of effectiveness.
The Center for Social Gerontology. Click first on "Tobacco and Elderly," then click on "Tobacco and Minorities."
The Center for Disease Control and Tobacco and Minorities.
Tobacco Industry Internal Documents.