Abstract
Although health promotion programming in faith institutions is promising, most faith-based or placed health projects focus on diet, exercise, or cancer screening and many have been located in urban environments. This article addresses the notable absence of faith programming for smoking cessation among underserved rural US residents who experience tobacco-related health inequities. In this article, we describe our faith-oriented smoking cessation program in rural Appalachia, involving 590 smokers in 26 rural churches randomized to early and delayed intervention groups. We present three main themes that account for participants’ positive evaluation of the program; the program’s ability to leverage social connections; the program’s convenience orientation; and the program’s financial support for smoking cessation. We also present themes on the roles of faith and church in smoking cessation programming, including some mixed perceptions on smoking stigma and comfort in church settings; challenges in faith-placed smoking cessation recruitment; and the positive perception of such programming by church leaders. We conclude that faith-placed smoking cessation programs offer great potential, although they must be administered with great sensitivity to individual and community norms.
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Acknowledgments
Support for this research was provided by the National Institutes of Health/National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities for the project, “Faith Moves Mountains: A CBPR Appalachian Wellness & Cancer Prevention Program” (R24 MD002757: Schoenberg). Dr. Studts’ effort was also supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, through grant number KL2TR000116. We also gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of our community partners and participants.
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Schoenberg, N.E., Bundy, H.E., Baeker Bispo, J.A. et al. A Rural Appalachian Faith-Placed Smoking Cessation Intervention. J Relig Health 54, 598–611 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9858-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9858-7