Construction workers have the highest rate of smoking among all occupations, and are frequently exposed to a wide range of workplace hazards (e.g. toxins), which interact with smoking to increase their health risks. Minority construction workers, in particular, have higher smoking and lower cessation rates compared to other groups, and they generally show lower access and participation in cessation and health promotion services. The number of Hispanic workers employed in the construction industry in the US has tripled in the past decade to 2.6 million (23% of all construction workers). Given that construction trades remain overwhelmingly male dominated, male Hispanic workers constitute a large and increasing group in need for smoking cessation and health promotion. Cessation efforts amongst this group however, are hindered by their: 1) high mobility/ turnover, 2) limited access to cessation and health promotion services, and 3) lack of culturally-sensitive smoking cessation interventions tailored for the difficult work/life circumstances of Hispanic construction workers. A novel approach that was recently piloted by our team is to partner with the lunch truck that routinely visits construction sites to deliver brief worksite-based, effective health promotion interventions. Our proposed exploratory study aims to tackle these major barriers to smoking cessation in Hispanic construction workers, by: 1) increasing their access to cessation through the use of the construction site as the intervention setting and the lunch truck as the intervention delivery modality to reach and recruit them, and 2) involving them in the development and evaluation of a pilot smoking cessation intervention adapted to their unique cultural and work circumstances. Therefore, our Specific Aims are: 1) Develop a brief, culturally sensitive smoking cessation intervention for Hispanic construction workers, built around exploratory focus groups, 2) In conjunction with the lunch truck, recruit 100 Hispanic male construction smokers to conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial to test the feasibility and potential efficacy of enhanced care intervention (consists of a single face-to-face behavioral counseling session delivered at the lunch truck, two brief follow-up phone counseling calls, fax referral to the Florida tobacco quitline (QL), and provision of eight weeks of free NRT), compared to standard care (consists of fax referral to the QL, and provision of eight weeks of free NRT), and 3) Conduct a post- intervention evaluation interview after 3-months of enrolment to assess their views on the usefulness and appropriateness of several features of the cessation intervention and to further fine-tune the intervention for wider testing and dissemination. This study will be the first to develop and evaluate a novel, low cost recruitment and intervention strategy in a hard-to-reach and underserved population of Hispanic male construction workers. Our data will inform a larger study of the effectiveness of cessation approaches that have great potential for translation and dissemination to minority construction workers throughout the US.
This study aims to increase male Hispanic construction workers access to cessation through the use of the lunch truck to deliver a culturally-sensitive smoking cessation intervention. Results will inform larger studies of the effectiveness of these approaches that have great potential for translation and dissemination in the US.
