DEJELO YA Media Campaign Connects Spanish-Speaking Communities to Effective Support for Quitting Tobacco

Abstract

Issue. New Mexico uses evidence-based approaches to help tobacco users quit, including a statewide free telephone quitline. The state Tobacco Use Prevention and Control program’s goals include identifying and eliminating disparities. Priority Population. About 500,000 of the state’s residents are Hispanic or Latino people who speak Spanish at home. Among them, about 16% of adults smoke cigarettes, meaning approximately 60,000 potentially need quitting support. Method. Data indicated gaps in utilization of Spanish-language quitline services. An equity-focused quality improvement approach was used to address this gap in collaboration with Nuestra Salud (“Our Health”), a community-based organization supporting Spanish-speaking people throughout New Mexico. Formative research in Spanish-speaking communities was conducted during 2013. Based on these findings, a culturally grounded DEJELO YA (“Quit Now”) media campaign was developed and launched in 2015. Nuestra Salud led complementary community-based outreach. Service intake data and a 7-month evaluation survey from 2014-2016 were assessed descriptively to evaluate changes. Results. Quitline call frequencies increased by 31% among Spanish-speaking Hispanic/Latinos from 2014 to 2015, in comparison to 3% among non- Hispanics. Successful quitting improved for Spanish speakers from 32.9% in 2014 to 46.4% in 2016, while remaining stable among all English speakers (31.3% in 2015). Satisfaction with services was similar and unchanged for Spanish and English services (80.0% and 78.1%, respectively, in 2015). Implications for Practice. Implementation of an organically developed Spanish-language campaign was associated with improved quitline service utilization. Collaboration with a community-based organization in a quality improvement process was key. Sustained progress requires resources and attention to service capacity.