The Effects of a Multilingual Telephone Quitline for Asian Smokers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Telephone counseling was effective for Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-speaking smokers. This protocol should be incorporated into existing quitlines, with possible extension to other Asian languages.

A Social Network Family-Focused Intervention to Promote Smoking Cessation in Chinese and Vietnamese American Male Smokers: A Feasibility Study

“…38,40 The abstinence rates obtained from this pilot study were promising, particularly in the contexts where the intervention was delivered by nonprofessionals with no free medications and the proportion of unmotivated smokers was high in the study sample. Among the limited number published randomized trials targeting Asian American smokers, which included mostly smokers who were motivated to stop smoking such as callers to the quitline 32 or smokers who were willing to use NRT, 28-30 the 7-day abstinence rates of these trials ranged from 9.5% using LHW outreach 27 to 66% using intensive individual counseling sessions plus NRT at 3 months. 29 Only two of these trials provided 30-day or prolonged abstinence rates, which ranged from 15% with quitline 32 to 50% with intensive counseling plus NRT.…”

“…Among the limited number published randomized trials targeting Asian American smokers, which included mostly smokers who were motivated to stop smoking such as callers to the quitline 32 or smokers who were willing to use NRT, 28-30 the 7-day abstinence rates of these trials ranged from 9.5% using LHW outreach 27 to 66% using intensive individual counseling sessions plus NRT at 3 months. 29 Only two of these trials provided 30-day or prolonged abstinence rates, which ranged from 15% with quitline 32 to 50% with intensive counseling plus NRT. 30 The findings showed that the SNFF intervention yielded comparable and promising quit rates for not only motivated but also for unmotivated smokers.…”

“…Strategies tested include media interventions targeting Vietnamese, 25,26 lay health worker (LHW) outreach to individual Southeast Asian male smokers, 27 individual smoking cessation counseling plus NRT for Chinese and Koreans, [28][29][30] Internet-based smoking cessation program versus booklet for Koreans, 31 and telephone quitline counseling versus booklet for Chinese, Vietnamese, and Koreans. 32 Four of these eight trials showed effectiveness in promoting abstinence at 6 months or beyond (media campaign, 25 counseling plus NRT, 29,30 and quitline 32 ). None of these trials targeted both smokers' family and their peer networks despite the need to address the high social acceptability among Asian men, 33,34 and the emerging evidence supporting roles of family and peers in promoting quitting intention and smoking cessation in this population.…”

Counselling Asian Smokers: Key Considerations for a Telephone Intervention

“…A large clinical trial conducted at the California quitline showed that Asian immigrant smokers readily use cessation counselling and successfully quit (Zhu et al, 2012). This is noteworthy because traditional counselling approaches with roots in Western psychology are often challenged on their applicability to an ever-changing, culturally diverse treatment-seeking clientele (Benish, Quintana & Wampold, 2011;Hwang, 2006;Sue, Zane, Nagayama Hall & Berger, 2009).…”

Comparison of characteristics among Korean American male smokers between survey and cessation studies

“…Only 24% of Korean American smokers in California had ever been advised to quit by a physician as opposed to 46% for the general population of smokers in the same state [5,6]. Recently several studies have been conducted to test the efficacy of a smoking cessation intervention in this group and some had positive cessation outcomes [7][8][9][10]. It has been argued that participants in a clinical trial of smoking cessation differ from the general population of smokers, which is often addressed as a major limitation of the study.…”