Grant Number:	5R01CA132950-05 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Ossip, Deborah
Organization:	University Of Rochester
Project Title:	Community-Partnered Tobacco Control in Underserved Dominican Republic Communities
Fiscal Year:	2013

The globalization of the tobacco epidemic poses significant morbidity and mortality burdens, with the brunt of impact increasingly borne by low-middle income countries. Research partnerships between investigators from high-income countries with well developed tobacco control research programs and their counterparts in low-middle income countries are needed to effectively address this global public health crisis. The Dominican Republic (DR) is a key site that mirrors the trends in Latin America: it is a low-middle income tobacco growing country with significant tobacco use and high levels of secondhand smoke exposure, and it is at a very early stage of tobacco control. The proposed project will assess baseline knowledge, attitudes, exposures, and behaviors regarding tobacco use and secondhand smoke, provide a randomized controlled trial of community-partnered interventions around secondhand smoke and tobacco cessation, and develop and implement a dissemination plan for national and regional impact and translation of methods and results to other underserved groups as appropriate. A multimethod assessment approach will be used, to include qualitative community assessments (RAPs), a series of quantitative surveys (household surveillances, community and smoker cohort surveys, and health care provider surveys), and a biomarker assessment of secondhand smoke exposure. Eight economically disadvantaged communities will be randomized to intervention or control conditions in a lagged treatment design; interventions will be developed and implemented based on the evidence base from other countries and from a current DR trial, and on input from national and local DR workgroups using a community partnered approach. The intervention is hypothesized to decrease tobacco use rates, increase the number of smokefree homes, denormalize smoking, increase awareness of and change attitudes regarding tobacco use and secondhand smoke risks, decrease exposure to secondhand smoke, and increase health care provider intervention in intervention- relative to control communities, with differences by geographic and demographic characteristics to be examined. The project will also engage international, national, and local DR workgroups to maintain communication of findings to key partners, host a national DR tobacco control conference with regional representation, and develop other action steps for local and regional dissemination of findings and evidence based interventions, resources, and infrastructures. Finally, the project will coordinate with the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute for translation of current evidence based approaches and methodologies for implementation in the DR, and to explore whether any methodologies or interventions from the proposed trial in the DR can be translated to underserved groups in the United States. Effectively engaging early stage low-middle income countries in tobacco control research will be critical to reducing tobacco use and the burden of tobacco-caused illnesses globally.




A qualitative study of tobacco use in eight economically disadvantaged Dominican Republic communities.
Authors: Chin N. , Dozier A. , Quinones Z. , Diaz S. , Weber E. , Almonte H. , Bautista A. , Raman K. , McIntosh S. , Ossip D. .
Source: Global health promotion, 2017 Dec; 24(4), p. 23-32.
EPub date: 2016-06-28.
PMID: 27353117
Related Citations

Tobacco Cessation in Economically Disadvantaged Dominican Republic Communities: Who are the Ex-Users?
Authors: Ossip D.J. , Quiñones Z. , Diaz S. , Thevenet-Morrison K. , Fisher S. , Holderness H. , Cai X. , McIntosh S. , Dozier A. , Chin N. , et al. .
Source: Journal of smoking cessation, 2016 Dec; 11(4), p. 239-249.
EPub date: 2015-02-20.
PMID: 28025600
Related Citations

Lessons Learned from Twelve Years of Partnered Tobacco Cessation Research in the Dominican Republic.
Authors: Ossip D.J. , Diaz S. , Quiñones Z. , McIntosh S. , Dozier A. , Chin N. , Weber E. , Holderness H. , Torres E. , Bautista A. , et al. .
Source: Journal of smoking cessation, 2016 Jun; 11(2), p. 99-107.
EPub date: 2016-05-10.
PMID: 29104673
Related Citations

Health care workers' knowledge, attitudes and practices on tobacco use in economically disadvantaged dominican republic communities.
Authors: Prucha M.G. , Fisher S.G. , McIntosh S. , Grable J.C. , Holderness H. , Thevenet-Morrison K. , de Monegro Z.Q. , Sánchez J.J. , Bautista A. , Díaz S. , et al. .
Source: International journal of environmental research and public health, 2015-04-13; 12(4), p. 4060-75.
EPub date: 2015-04-13.
PMID: 25872018
Related Citations

Environmental health hazards of e-cigarettes and their components: Oxidants and copper in e-cigarette aerosols.
Authors: Lerner C.A. , Sundar I.K. , Watson R.M. , Elder A. , Jones R. , Done D. , Kurtzman R. , Ossip D.J. , Robinson R. , McIntosh S. , et al. .
Source: Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987), 2015 Mar; 198, p. 100-7.
EPub date: 2015-01-09.
PMID: 25577651
Related Citations

Vapors produced by electronic cigarettes and e-juices with flavorings induce toxicity, oxidative stress, and inflammatory response in lung epithelial cells and in mouse lung.
Authors: Lerner C.A. , Sundar I.K. , Yao H. , Gerloff J. , Ossip D.J. , McIntosh S. , Robinson R. , Rahman I. .
Source: PloS one, 2015; 10(2), p. e0116732.
EPub date: 2015-02-06.
PMID: 25658421
Related Citations

Understanding sociodemographic and sociocultural factors that characterize tobacco use and cessation during pregnancy among women in the Dominican Republic.
Authors: Torres E.T. , Guido J. , de Monegro Z.Q. , Diaz S. , Dozier A.M. , McInstosh S. , Ossip D.J. .
Source: Maternal and child health journal, 2014 Dec; 18(10), p. 2275-83.
PMID: 24043558
Related Citations

Cohort study of smoke-free homes in economically disadvantaged communities in the Dominican Republic.
Authors: Dozier A.M. , Diaz S. , Guido J. , Quiñones de Monegro Z. , McIntosh S. , Fisher S.G. , Ossip D.J. .
Source: Revista panamericana de salud publica = Pan American journal of public health, 2014 Jan; 35(1), p. 30-7.
PMID: 24626445
Related Citations

The global tobacco epidemic: public health crisis and public health opportunity.
Authors: Ossip D.J. .
Source: Asia-Pacific journal of public health, 2013 Sep; 25(5 Suppl), p. 4S-6S.
PMID: 24092812
Related Citations

Tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke among pregnant women in the Dominican Republic: an exploratory look into attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and practices.
Authors: Torres E. , Quiñones de Monegro Z. , French L. , Swanson D.P. , Guido J. , Ossip D.J. .
Source: Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, 2011 Dec; 13(12), p. 1220-7.
EPub date: 2011-09-08.
PMID: 21908462
Related Citations

Tobacco Control and Children: An International Perspective.
Authors: Lando H.A. , Hipple B.J. , Muramoto M. , Klein J.D. , Prokhorov A.V. , Ossip D.J. , Winickoff J.P. .
Source: Pediatric allergy, immunology, and pulmonology, 2010 Jun; 23(2), p. 99-103.
PMID: 22375275
Related Citations