Cigarette smoking in a multiethnic population of youth: methods and baseline findings.

BACKGROUND: To expand upon recent research studies that have identified dramatic ethnic differences in adolescent cigarette smoking, this study was designed to characterize smoking among a multiethnic population of adolescents and to identify significant factors that may protect against smoking initiation. METHODS: During the first 2 years, this mixed cross-sectional, longitudinal study recruited and collected baseline data from a volunteer sample of 1,441 Houston-area public school students in the 5th, 8th, or 12th grade. A wide range of new and established predictors of smoking behavior was assessed, and their associations with ever smoking and susceptibility to smoking were assessed within ethnicity (white, N = 537; African-American, N = 454; and Hispanic, N = 297). RESULTS: Consistent with previous studies, white students smoked in substantially higher proportions than African-American students, with Hispanic adolescents in-between. Simultaneously adjusting for other variables, the odds of ever smoking (OR = 0.47, P < 0.01) and susceptibility to smoking (OR = 0.64, P < 0.01) were significantly lower among African-American adolescents when compared with whites; odds ratios for Hispanics and whites did not differ. Across all three ethnicities, the most important predictor of both ever smoking and susceptibility to smoking was the smoking status of the three best friends. Several ethnicity-specific variables also were identified. CONCLUSIONS: In concordance with previous investigations, cigarette smoking prevalence differs by ethnicity, and the factors associated with ever smoking and susceptibility to smoking differ among white, African-American, and Hispanic adolescents. The results of this study may be used to develop theory-based, culturally appropriate smoking intervention programs for adolescents.

Recruitment and enrollment for Project HeartBeat! Achieving the goals of minority inclusion.

OBJECTIVE: The inclusion of women and minorities in health research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has received increasing attention since the adoption of related guidelines by NIH in 1990. Investigators in population-based and clinical research may need to identify and recruit research participants from community settings in which little is known by investigators of the dynamics and day-to-day needs of the community. This was the case at the start of Project HeartBeat!, an intensive longitudinal study of the development of cardiovascular risk factors against the background of growth and maturation. This paper identifies those elements found essential when recruiting and enrolling minority participants for Project HeartBeat! METHODS: No prior experience had existed in the community from which the majority of Black participants were recruited to the Project. Therefore, recruitment methods were based on previous experience of the investigators as well as on the published reports of others. RESULTS: Immediate costs were substantially greater than projected, and the recruitment period was two years rather than one-a circumstance with longer-term implications as well. However, with the support of a community-based advisory committee, the school district, and a local recruitment staff, the recruitment goal was obtained. CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment and enrollment of minority participants can be especially challenging; however, many of those challenges are common to any target population. Elements that need to be adequately addressed include the researchers' involvement with the community in which the participants live, a tracking system to assess recruitment efforts, flexibility in the methods of recruitment, and adequate resources in time, money and personnel.