Smoking Behaviors in Arab Americans: Acculturation and Health Beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roula Ghadban ◽  
Linda Haddad ◽  
Leroy R. Thacker ◽  
Kyungeh An ◽  
Robert L. Balster ◽  
...  

Introduction: Arab Americans are a growing population in the United States. In the 2011 American Community Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau reported there were close to 1.8 million Arab Americans living within the United States, a 47% increase in population size from 2000. According to the Arab American Institute, currently, that estimate has grown to approximately 3.7 million. They have high rates of smoking and low rates of smoking cessation. In this study, the researchers investigated factors influencing desire to quit smoking among Arab Americans, and their association with acculturation and health beliefs. Methodology: Cross-sectional descriptive study investigating smoking behaviors and factors influencing the desire to quit smoking among adult Arab American. Data were collected to measure tobacco use, nicotine dependence, desire to quit smoking, acculturation, and health beliefs. Results: The sample ( N = 96) was 55% female, mean age of 44 years (±14.79). The desire to quit smoking was positively associated with perceived severity (p < .05) and susceptibility to cancer (p < .05), perceived benefits of quitting smoking ( p < .01); and negatively associated with smoking barriers (addiction barriers p < .05, external barriers p = .27, internal barriers p < .05), and nicotine dependence (p < .05). Being female, having a lower level of nicotine dependence, and a higher perception of cancer severity predicted higher desire to quit smoking ( p < .01). Discussion: Smoking cessation intervention studies need to target appropriate health beliefs, especially the high risk of cancer caused by smoking among Arab Americans.

Author(s):  
Pamela E. Pennock

As we approach the third decade of the twenty-first century, the United States continues to wrestle with defining its role in Middle East conflicts and fully accepting and fairly treating Arab and Muslim Americans. In this contentious and often ill-informed climate, it is crucial to appreciate the struggles, priorities, and accomplishments of Arab Americans over the past several decades, both what has set them apart and what has integrated them into the politics and culture of the United States. Arab American organizing in the environment of minority rights movements in the 1960s and 1970s fostered a heightened consciousness of and pride in Arab American identity....


10.2196/22877 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e22877
Author(s):  
Laura M Hernandez ◽  
David W Wetter ◽  
Santosh Kumar ◽  
Steven K Sutton ◽  
Christine Vinci

Background Cigarette smoking has numerous health consequences and is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Mindfulness has the ability to enhance resilience to stressors and can strengthen an individual’s ability to deal with discomfort, which may be particularly useful when managing withdrawal and craving to smoke. Objective This study aims to evaluate feasibility results from an intervention that provides real-time, real-world mindfulness strategies to a sample of racially and ethnically diverse smokers making a quit attempt. Methods This study uses a microrandomized trial design to deliver mindfulness-based strategies in real time to individuals attempting to quit smoking. Data will be collected via wearable sensors, a study smartphone, and questionnaires filled out during the in-person study visits. Results Recruitment is complete, and data management is ongoing. Conclusions The data collected during this feasibility trial will provide preliminary findings about whether mindfulness strategies delivered in real time are a useful quit smoking aid that warrants additional investigation. Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03404596; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03404596 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/22877


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1234-1238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Frith ◽  
Paul D. Loprinzi

Introduction: We evaluated the specific association between exercise and smoking cessation via smoking-mediated intentions to quit smoking among a national sample of young daily smokers in the United States. Design: Prospective cohort study over a 2-year period, with daily smokers assessed across all 50 states in the United States. Setting: Data from the 2003 to 2005 National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey were used. Participants: A total of 1175 young adult smokers aged between 18 and 24 years. Measures: Baseline exercise and intent to quit smoking were assessed via validated survey measures. Smoking status at the 2-year follow-up period was assessed via survey assessment. Results: After adjustments, meeting exercise guidelines at baseline was associated with an increased baseline intent to quit smoking among this national sample of daily smokers (OR = 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-2.07; P = .01). After adjustments, those with a baseline intent to quit smoking had a 71% increased odds ratio (OR) of being a nonsmoker at the 2-year follow-up (OR = 1.71; 95% CI: 1.20-2.44; P = .003). Baseline exercise was not associated with 2-year follow-up smoking status (OR = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.60-1.28; P = .50). Conclusion: In this nationally representative sample of young daily smokers, there was a positive association between exercise participation and intention to quit smoking. Baseline intent to quit smoking was independently associated with nonsmoking status at a 2-year follow-up. Thus, this indirect link between exercise and smoking status may be partially explained by the influence of exercise engagement on smoking-specific intentions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 205510291881993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Valera ◽  
Andrea Reid ◽  
Nicholas Acuna ◽  
Daniel Mackey

To determine smoking behaviors, quit attempts, and cessation preferences among incarcerated smokers, a cross-sectional survey was given to a sample of inmates from three state prison facilities in the United States. A majority of Black smokers (62%) identified as smokers, and 38% identified as ex-smokers, as compared to 46.4 percent of smokers (and 53.6% of ex-smokers) in the non-Black group. There were significant differences in the number of cigarettes smoked per day with non-Black smokers smoking one pack ( M = 20.44, standard deviation = 15.86) than Black smokers ( M = 14.49, standard deviation = 13.43; t = −2.50, p = 0.014). Smoking cessation interventions are needed to reduce smoking during incarceration.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura M Hernandez ◽  
David W Wetter ◽  
Santosh Kumar ◽  
Steven K Sutton ◽  
Christine Vinci

BACKGROUND Cigarette smoking has numerous health consequences and is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Mindfulness has the ability to enhance resilience to stressors and can strengthen an individual’s ability to deal with discomfort, which may be particularly useful when managing withdrawal and craving to smoke. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate feasibility results from an intervention that provides real-time, real-world mindfulness strategies to a sample of racially and ethnically diverse smokers making a quit attempt. METHODS This study uses a microrandomized trial design to deliver mindfulness-based strategies in real time to individuals attempting to quit smoking. Data will be collected via wearable sensors, a study smartphone, and questionnaires filled out during the in-person study visits. RESULTS Recruitment is complete, and data management is ongoing. CONCLUSIONS The data collected during this feasibility trial will provide preliminary findings about whether mindfulness strategies delivered in real time are a useful quit smoking aid that warrants additional investigation. CLINICALTRIAL Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03404596; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03404596 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/22877


Author(s):  
Dr. Maher Mubdir Abdul Kareem ◽  
Iman Saud Dhannoon

Immigration from one location to another in search for a better life has been an ongoing human process. The process, as a matter of fact, began before the WWI and it continues till now. It was dramatically increased during the era of the wars. Early immigrations involved unskilled and illiterate people whose common labor was peddling. Peddling vastly enabled immigrants assimilate into American multi-cultures. It is the base on which the history of Arab American is documented. The paper is aimed to discuss the concept of immigration first, investigating the three distinctive waves of Arab immigrants to the United States, focusing on early migrations and early American cultures, the act of peddling, and how Arab immigrants assimilated to the American society. The study will answer the questions: How did Alixa Naff become American? What experience did she lead? And how did she affect the society of Arab Americans? The study originally depended on Naff's Collections which is a key insight of experiences of the first wave Arab Immigrants based on oral real history interviewed by immigrants in the new country.


Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal S. Parikh ◽  
Melvin Parasram ◽  
Halina White ◽  
Alexander E. Merkler ◽  
Babak B. Navi ◽  
...  

Background and Purpose: Continued smoking after stroke is associated with a high risk of stroke recurrence and other cardiovascular disease. We sought to comprehensively understand the epidemiology of smoking cessation in stroke survivors in the United States. Furthermore, we compared smoking cessation in stroke and cancer survivors because cancer is another smoking-related condition in which smoking cessation is prioritized. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an annual, nationally representative health survey. Using pooled data from 2013 to 2019, we identified stroke and cancer survivors with a history of smoking. We used survey procedures to estimate frequencies and summarize quit ratios with attention to demographic and geographic (state-wise and rural-urban) factors for stroke survivors. The quit ratio is conventionally defined as the proportion of ever smokers who have quit. Then, we used multivariable logistic regression to compare quit ratios in stroke and cancer survivors while adjusting for demographics and smoking-related comorbidities. Results: Among 4 434 604 Americans with a history of stroke and smoking, the median age was 68 years (interquartile range, 59–76), and 45.4% were women. The overall quit ratio was 60.8% (95% CI, 60.1%–61.6%). Quit ratios varied by age group, sex, race and ethnicity, and several geographic factors. There was marked geographic variation in quit ratios, ranging from 48.3% in Kentucky to 71.5% in California. Furthermore, compared with cancer survivors, stroke survivors were less likely to have quit smoking (odds ratio, 0.72 [95% CI, 0.67–0.79]) after accounting for differences in demographics and smoking-related comorbidities. Conclusions: There were considerable demographic and geographic disparities in smoking quit ratios in stroke survivors, who were less likely to have quit smoking than cancer survivors. A targeted initiative is needed to improve smoking cessation for stroke survivors.


Author(s):  
Pamela E. Pennock

Carrying signs and banners proclaiming “Jewish People Yes, Zionism No,” in November 1973 hundreds of Arab American autoworkers and their supporters picketed an event in Detroit at which the Jewish organization B’nai B’rith was honoring United Auto Workers’ president Leonard Woodcock. Plans for the protest had been building for several weeks, emanating from demonstrations held in reaction to the war fought between Israel and several Arab nations in October 1973. The October demonstrations that took place in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States, focused on championing the Arabs’ fight along with protesting American support for Israel. In Dearborn and across the country, Arab American political mobilization on behalf of Palestine had escalated since the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, when Israel had defeated its Arab opponents and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians....


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