Preparing the "Ground War" against tobacco among Chinese Americans in New York City: baseline data.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this paper is to report on data on the perceptions regarding smoking and environmental tobacco smoke as well as the health communication patterns of a representative sample of 715 adult Chinese families with children under age 18 who had not banned smoking in the home.

METHODS

We selected a representative sample of Chinese American families residing in New York's five boroughs: Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island based on Chinese family surnames and interviewed them by telephone between December 2000-March 2001. All except 4% of the interviews were conducted in English; most respondents chose to speak Cantonese and lesser numbers chose Mandarin.

FINDINGS

For the most part, respondents believed in the hazards of smoking, especially as it harms children living at home. To address smoking, respondents believed the physicians is the most trustworthy source of health information and the sources of health information consulted would be overwhelmingly the Chinese language newspaper, followed by Chinese language radio and television.

CONCLUSIONS

This study represents the first systematic assessment of Chinese Americans in New York with regard to selected tobacco control issues. The findings provide the empirical base for developing potential messages using the source considered most trustworthy (the physician) and the vehicle most consulted (Chinese language media).