A number of previous studies have documented the worsening smoking problems in China. This paper identifies several key socioeconomic variables associated with smoking among urban working adults and calls researchers' attention to the important function of cigarette smoking as a social connection builder in China. This study argues that a smoking prevention and education program should place more emphasis on making smoking socially unnecessary and/or unacceptable because of the continuing increase in the number of smokers and the low desire to quit among smokers. The findings also suggest that while socioeconomic characteristics are excellent in predicting whether a person smokes or not, they are dismal in predicting smoking frequency among working adults.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of drug abuse treatment in Peru that used the therapeutic community (TC) model. Program directors and several staff members from all study treatment facilities received two to eight weeks of in-country training on how to implement the TC treatment model prior to the follow-up study.

This research study sought to develop, pilot test, and assess a brief male-centered condom promotion program for urban young adult African American males. For study implementation, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used, and the project was guided by tenets of two common but integrated theoretical frameworks in HIV/sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention research: the social cognitive theory and the stages of change model. The purpose of the qualitative component was to identify and explore condom-use barriers and facilitators while that of the quantitative component was to identify the prevalence of condom-related behaviors and the feasibility of program administration. After recruitment of study participants from hang-out spots and street intercepts, study participants were self-administered a baseline survey regarding their perceived condom-use behaviors prior to random assignment to program conditions (a condom promotion program and an attention-matched comparison condition). In this paper, we report the findings from the analyses of the quantitative baseline survey data. While the occurrence of HIV/STD-related risk behavIors were highly prevalent among this population; importantly, regression analyses revealed that sexual debut, favorable attitudes toward condom use, social or personal connectedness to HIV/STDs, health beliefs, perceived susceptibility, unprotected sexual encounters, and refusal skills were predictive of retrospective (i.e., prior 30 days) condom use while positive reasons (pros) to use condoms, condom-use beliefs, condom-carrying, health belief, unprotected sexual encounters and refusal skills were also predictive of prospective (i.e., future 30 days) condom-use intentions. The implications and limitations of this study are described and recommendations provided for program development.

Rationale  The prevention of human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted diseases remains a significant global public health issue, especially among vulnerable populations. Aims and objectives  To promote condom use skills among young urban African American men. Methods  As a pilot study, a randomized controlled trial was conducted among 136 African American men aged 18–24 years recruited from urban communities in Chicago. Participants assigned to the intervention received 45–60 minutes of a one‐on‐one single‐session condom promotion program delivered by trained facilitators while those assigned to the attention‐matched comparison condition received a general health program. Longitudinally, 115 (85%) and 120 (88%) participants completed the 3‐month and 6‐month follow‐up surveys, respectively. Results  Overall, the study results indicate that positive effects were observed from baseline to 6‐month follow‐up for intervention participants relative to comparison condition participants for prior condom use (1.23–1.82 versus 1.34–0.97); condom use intention (2.51–3.19 versus 2.69–2.21); perceived condom availability (3.44–3.72 versus 3.42–3.38); positive reasons to use condoms (2.82–3.08 versus 2.95–1.99); favourable condom use attitude (2.41–2.69 versus 2.49–1.95); barriers to condom use (1.33–0.79 versus 1.25–1.85); and negative condom use attitude (1.45–0.66 versus 1.33–1.39), respectively. Conclusions  We conclude that a brief single‐session condom promotion program is effective in preventing high‐risk sexual behaviours among urban young adult African American men.