A Culturally Adapted Smoking Cessation Intervention for Korean Americans: Preliminary Findings
Journal of Transcultural Nursing: A Forum for Cultural Competence in Health Care
Published online on August 19, 2015
Abstract
Korean Americans have the highest smoking rate within the Asian American population. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of a culturally adapted telephone cessation intervention for Korean Americans. Participants were recruited from advertisements on a Korean radio station channel in New York City. All received a combination of telephone cessation counseling and nicotine patches. Thirty-one (2 women and 29 men) participated in the study. At 3-month follow-up, 14 (45.2%) reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence and 13 (41.9%) achieved 3-month prolonged abstinence. Except for two who lived alone, self-reported abstinence was corroborated by a family member. The findings point to the direction that a nationally centralized Korean-language quitline service should be established to help Korean Americans quit smoking. Furthermore, the service should be adapted at a deep level of the culture.