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This paper discusses the development and implementation of a smoking cessation training program for diabetes nurse educators. People with diabetes who smoke have a significantly higher risk of morbidity and mortality. Smoking greatly increases diabetes complications. Surveys were conducted to ascertain how frequently nurses counseled patients to quit and their interest in cessation training. Observations of nursepatient interactions and interviews with diabetes nurses facilitated the development of a culturally sensitive cessation training program. Survey results revealed that diabetes nurse educators recognized the need for training in smoking cessation, as many patients with diabetes do not consider smoking to be harmful for their health. A two-day workshop was developed for nurses on the specific harms of smoking for diabetes patients, including hands-on training in cessation counseling and motivational interviewing. Two months after training, nurses reported that the skills they acquired gave them confidence to counsel patients but identified four challenges to conducting cessation in their clinical settings. Diabetes nurse educators can play a pivotal role in delivering cessation. Training and overcoming challenges to implementation are urgently needed in the time of coronavirus disease 2019 given the dual risks of diabetes and smoking for severe complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop and test messages and a mobile phone delivery protocol designed to influence the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of adolescents. Design: Nine focus groups, 4 classroom discussions, and an 8-week pilot study exploring message content, format, origin, and message delivery were conducted over 12 months using a multistage, youth-participatory approach. Setting: Youth programs at 11 locations in Arizona. Participants: Recruitment was coordinated through youth educators and leaders. Eligible teens were 12-18 years old and enrolled in youth programs between fall 2009 and 2010. Phenomenon of Interest: Adolescent preferences for messages and delivery of messages. Analysis: Qualitative data analysis procedures to generate themes from field notes. Results: One hundred seventy-seven adolescents participated in focus groups (n = 59), discussions (n = 86), and a pilot study (n = 32). Youth preferred messages with an active voice that referenced teens and recommended specific, achievable behaviors; messages should come from nutrition professionals delivered as a text message, at a frequency of [less than or equal to] 2 messages/day. Conclusions and Implications: More than 300 messages and a delivery protocol were successfully developed and tested in partnership with adolescents. Future research should address scalability of texting interventions; explore dose associated with changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; and offer customized message subscription options. (Contains 3 tables.)

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of 53 low-income women who were smokers at the onset of pregnancy. Study participants were interviewed during pregnancy to document smoking trajectories and factors contributing to, or undermining, harm reduction and quit attempts. Thirty percent of women quit smoking completely, 43% engaged in sustained harm reduction, and 26% reduced their smoking levels intermittently. Case studies of women are presented to illustrate reasons for quitting, harm reduction practices, and factors influencing relapse and smoking continuation. Women's motivations to quit are highlighted. Moral identity as a mother was found to be a key motivating factor behind women's quit attempts. Future programs targeting this population would do well to acknowledge moral identity as an issue and recognize the challenges of quitting for women with limited social support and little control over their immediate environment. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)

Ethnographic research, including interviews, focus groups, and observations were conducted to explore gendered dimensions of smoking among low level smokers, including the acceptability of smoking in different contexts; reasons for smoking; the monitoring of self and friends' smoking; and shared smoking as a means of communicating concern and empathy. Important gendered dimensions of smoking were documented. Although males who smoked were described as looking manly, relaxed, and in control, among females, smoking was considered a behavior that made one look slutty and out of control. Young women were found to monitor their own and their friends' smoking carefully and tended to smoke in groups to mitigate negative perceptions of smoking. Gender-specific tobacco cessation programs are warranted on college campuses. (Contains 1 note and 1 figure.)

This paper examines popular perceptions of tobacco products and describes patterns of use among college youth in Karnataka, India. Data are drawn from 25 key informant interviews and six focus groups with male and female college students, interviews with shopkeepers, observational data on youth tobacco consumption and a college-based survey. The survey was administered to 1587 males attending eleven colleges. Forty-five percent (n = 716) of college students surveyed had used tobacco products. Thirty-six percent (n = 573) had tried cigarettes, 10% (n = 157) had tried bidis, and 18% (n = 290) had tried gutkha. Tobacco consumption among smokers was low; for daily smokers, the mean number of cigarettes smoked was 6 per day. Students attending professional colleges, including engineering, medicine, and law were significantly more likely to have ever smoked and to be daily smokers when compared to students enrolled in other courses of study. In interviews, male students noted that smoking a cigarette enhanced one's manliness, relieved boredom, and eased tension. Although female students interviewed were non-smokers, several suggested that in the future, smoking might be an acceptable behavior among college-going females. When asked about their perceptions of smoking among youth in Western countries, the majority of students believed that three-quarters of male and female youth in the West smoked. This perception has been largely formed through media images, including satellite television and films. With regard to addiction, it was widely believed that filter-tipped cigarettes were one of the most addictive products because they are made of better quality tobacco, and are milder and smoother to smoke. Therefore, a person could easily smoke more of them, which would lead to addiction. Another widely held belief was that the more expensive the cigarette, the less harmful it was for one's health. Keywords: Tobacco products; Adolescent smoking; Initiation of smoking; India

This article, written by an anthropologist who has studied the culture of teenage girls, explores influences on their sense of self, including those of peers, parents, and the media. Educators and parents can play important roles in helping young people navigate successfully through adolescence. (Author/MKA)

Since economic liberalization in 1991, India has been experiencing rapid economic growth and a shift to consumer culture, making it fertile ground for marketers of consumer goods. Historically, sales of beauty products in India had been limited by high taxation, restricted consumer choice, and high levels of poverty; post-liberalization, the country was therefore seen as a market with immense, albeit untapped, potential. However, even as beauty industry reports tout the potential for growth, nearly three decades after liberalization, per capita sales of beauty products continue to be some of the lowest in the world. Little is known about why beauty products remain stubbornly resistant to aspirational marketing efforts. Meanwhile, scant social scientific attention has been paid to the creation and marketing of tastes and desires by the beauty industry in India and women's engagement with those desires. In this article, we present ethnographic depth on how local beauty cultures affect understandings of bodily aesthetics to create hybrid beauty practices and on how marketing efforts seek to channel these practices into consumer behavior. We examine some of the major points of contingent difference linked to low volumes of cosmetics sales in India and explore the approaches adopted by advertisers and marketers of beauty products to convert such difference into new imaginaries that foster mass consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2009.05.007 Byline: Viktoriya Magid (a), Craig R. Colder (a), Laura R. Stroud (b), Mimi Nichter (c), Mark Nichter (c) Keywords: Cigarette use; Smoking; College; Marijuana; Alcohol; Negative affect; Stress Abstract: Stress and negative affect (NA) figure prominently in theoretical models of smoking initiation, maintenance and relapse, yet few studies have examined these associations among college students. Further complicating examination of these associations, smoking often occurs in the context of other substance use (e.g., alcohol, marijuana) in college populations. Thus, it remains unclear whether stress and NA are associated with cigarette use among college students, and if so, whether these associations are evident after controlling for effects of other substance use. The goals of this study were: a) to examine whether several aspects of stress (objective events, subjective experiences) and NA (sad mood, general emotional distress) were associated with cigarette smoking among college students and b) whether associations remained after accounting for alcohol and marijuana use. Author Affiliation: (a) University at Buffalo, SUNY, United States (b) Alpert Medical School, Brown University, United States (c) University of Arizona, United States