Identifying the Determinants of Hookah Smoking Among the Youth; A Mixed-Methods Study.

Hookahs have been rising in popularity in the United States (U.S.) especially among the youth yet not much research has been carried out to understand the various predictors of hookah use among youth. We have thus conducted a cross-sectional study with a mixed-methods triangulation design to identify the hookah use determinants at different levels of the Social Ecological Model among youth. Participants between the ages of 18-24 years were sampled purposively, between April to November 2023, following a snowballing technique from various communities in Virginia and California, United States. Data were collected via a survey, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups. The study had a total sample size of 20. We found that participants smoked for a median of 5 times in the past 30 days. The main determinants of hookah smoking included the limited knowledge of health effects and addiction, positive attitude, family and peer influence, use as a means to socially connect with others, culture, social acceptability, lack of education at school and work place, access to hookah bars and smoke shops, and lack of strict enforcement of laws to ban smoking of youth. Educational interventions should be implemented by public health authorities to target the youth, their social and communities to provide education on hookah harm and addictiveness and to restrict access to- and the production, distribution, marketing and sales of hookahs.

A Community-Defined Approach to Address Trauma Among Cambodian Immigrants and Refugees.

Asian American and Pacific Islanders are one of the fastest growing and most diverse groups in the United States. Yet, they are often aggregated as a single group, masking within-group differences in rates of disease and demographic characteristics commonly associated with elevated health risk. While more than four decades have passed since the Khmer Rouge genocide, Cambodians continue to experience trauma-related psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression. Funded by the California Department of Public Health Office of Health Equity, the Community Wellness Program (CWP) aimed to reduce mental health disparities among Cambodians in Long Beach and Santa Ana, California, using community-defined approaches. The 6-month program comprised community outreach, educational workshops, strengths-based case management, and social and spiritual activities. Our study aimed to examine the effects of the CWP on trauma symptoms. Program evaluation followed an incomplete stepped wedge waitlist design with two study arms. A linear mixed models analysis revealed that participants reported fewer trauma symptoms as a result of participation in the CWP and that participants experienced fewer symptoms over time. This is an especially important finding, as trauma can lead to long-term individual health effects and to social and health repercussions on an entire cultural group by way of intergenerational trauma. As the number of refugees and displaced individuals continues to grow, there is an urgent need for programs such as the CWP to prevent the lasting effects of trauma.

Examining Resident Power Building in a Place-Based Initiative.

Rates of diseases and disabilities that are otherwise preventable are higher in low-income communities and communities of color. These disparities are attributed, in large part, to a power imbalance between residents and decision makers, and restoring resident power is necessary to improve health outcomes. A key strategy in many health promotion programs, resident power building is a process by which residents gain necessary skills to improve social conditions through their involvement in community change work. This study is part of a larger evaluation of Building Healthy Communities, a ground-breaking 10-year, $1 billion place-based initiative funded by The California Endowment designed to reverse the historical impact of racial and economic discrimination by advancing statewide policy, changing the narrative around health, and transforming underserved communities to achieve health equity. This article presents the resident power framework and identifies five domains that contributed to resident power building: continuity, culture, context, concrete action, and capacity. Continuity and culture mattered most to residents' ability to organize and to their ability to exercise their voice, respectively. While this study examined resident power building within the context of a large-scale place-based initiative, the domains that the authors identified are salient across health promotion programs that use power building as a key strategy to achieve program outcomes. The domains serve as opportunities to modify power-building strategies and allow program staff to allocate resources to specific activities to achieve program outcomes.

Community collaborative for colorectal cancer screening in Los Angeles Koreatown.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) rates are high among Korean Americans due in large part to low rates of screening. The Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (AANCART) developed the Korean CRC Project to increase awareness of and access to CRC screening for Los Angeles County Korean Americans.

Implementing cancer prevention into clinical practice.

Cancer prevention has been associated with decreased rates of cancer incidence and increased survival. Cancer prevention, however, can have a greater impact if barriers to implementing cancer prevention into practice are removed and opportunities are both fostered and seized. The purpose of this article is to identify barriers and opportunities to cancer prevention in clinical practice and provide recommendations for the future. A multidisciplinary team participated in "The Future Directions Cancer Prevention and Control: Workforce Implications for Training, Practice and Policy" workshop on October 17-18, 2009 at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. During the meeting, the team discussed barriers and opportunities for the implementation of cancer prevention into clinical practice. Further data were collected from peer-reviewed journals and published government and cancer agencies reports. Several issues were identified: (1) The funding allocated to basic cancer prevention research and application is not optimal and less than that for cancer treatment; (2) participation in cancer prevention behaviors and screening practices are lower than desired, especially among the uninsured; (3) a shortage in healthcare professionals is a major challenge in meeting the future needs of cancer prevention; (4) demands on medical schools to balance increased enrollment, incorporate cancer prevention in an already crowded curriculum, and develop faculty are daunting; and (5) healthcare reforms in 2010 provide both opportunities and additional challenges for cancer prevention. Based on the current state of cancer prevention, we formed six recommendations: (1) additional funding for cancer prevention research with a focus on implementation into practice, (2) improved tracking of cancer prevention research funding and the outcomes associated with it, (3) continued monitoring of cancer prevention services participation with emphasis on closing the gap in health disparities, (4) financial and technical assistance to healthcare professional schools for incorporating cancer prevention into curricula, (5) assessment of the current state of technology in cancer prevention care, and (6) the use of effective multidisciplinary teams in cancer prevention care. Improved delivery of cancer prevention services can have a tremendous impact on cancer incidence and survival rates.