Cancer Research Center project focuses on youth tobacco use

The 2008 Guam Substance Abuse Epidemiological Profile statistics show that three out of four Guam youth smoke and start smoking as early as middle school.  A University of Guam Cancer Research Center research project aims to measure how exposure to tobacco by adults who smoke and environmental cues, including advertising, contribute to a greater likelihood of youth tobacco consumption.

Among Guam youth, tobacco consumption (including smoking and chewing tobacco with betel nut) is highest among Chamorro and other Micronesian youth. In an effort to identify and better understand reasons for tobacco use disparities among Chamorro and other Micronesian youth, thirty-three youth and tobacco control community volunteers successfully completed the “Photovoice and GIS Mapping/Tobacco Marketing at Point of Sales” training held in July 2011.

The University of Guam Cancer Research Center partnered with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Institute for Global Tobacco Control to train a group of youth and adult volunteers in community-based participatory research methods to test whether higher exposure to tobacco advertising is one of the reasons for higher tobacco use rates among Chamorro and other Micronesian youth.

The training was funded through a National Cancer Institute community partnership initiative of the UOG Cancer Research Center. The co-Principal Investigators for U54 Pilot Program 1 are Drs. Annette M. David, UOG, and Neal Palafox, University of Hawai’i Cancer Center.

The workshop consisted of 2 days of training in Photovoice and GIS Mapping, and 3 days of field data collection. Ms. Jessica Elf from John’s Hopkins conducted hands-on training in the use of hand-held computers for data gathering and the acquisition of Global Positioning System coordinates of tobacco retailers using portable GPS devices.

Once the data is processed, the community research group will examine and analyze the data and determine how best to utilize and disseminate the information. We anticipate that the data will provide good local evidence to guide recommendations regarding tobacco point-of-sale advertising in Guam. The GIS mapping data will be presented at the Guam Community Tobacco Control Research Summit on August 27, 2011, and the Photovoice results will be displayed as a photo exhibit at this forum.

For more information about this training or other trainings, contact the University of Guam Cancer Research Center at 735-2988/9. [B][I](UOG)[/I][/B]