1. Examining smoke-free coalitions in Armenia and Georgia: baseline community capacity.
- Author
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Berg, Carla J, Dekanosidze, Ana, Torosyan, Arevik, Grigoryan, Lilit, Sargsyan, Zhanna, Hayrumyan, Varduhi, Topuridze, Marina, Sturua, Lela, Harutyunyan, Arusyak, Kvachantiradze, Lela, Maglakelidze, Nino, Gamkrelidze, Amiran, Abovyan, Romela, Bazarchyan, Alexander, and Kegler, Michelle C
- Subjects
SMOKING prevention ,ANALYSIS of variance ,CHI-squared test ,COALITIONS ,COMMUNITIES ,HEALTH policy ,PAIRED comparisons (Mathematics) ,RESEARCH funding ,STATISTICAL sampling ,STATISTICS ,SOCIOECONOMIC factors ,RANDOMIZED controlled trials ,TREATMENT effectiveness ,HUMAN services programs ,DATA analysis software ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,NON-communicable diseases - Abstract
Local coalitions can advance public health initiative but have not been widely used or well-studied in low- and middle-income countries. This paper provides (i) an overview of an ongoing matched-pairs community-randomized controlled trial in 28 communities in Armenia and Georgia (N = 14/country) testing local coalitions to promote smoke-free policies/enforcement and (ii) characteristics of the communities involved. In July–August 2018, key informants (e.g. local public health center directors) were surveyed to compare their non-communicable disease (NCD) and tobacco-related activities across countries and across condition (intervention/control). More than half of the informants (50.0–57.1%) reported their communities had programs addressing hypertension, diabetes, cancer and human papilloma virus, with 85.7% involving community education and 32.1% patient education programs. Eleven communities (39.3%) addressed tobacco control, all of which were in Georgia. Of those, all included public/community education and the majority (72.7–81.8%) provided cessation counseling/classes, school/youth prevention programs, healthcare provider training or activities addressing smoke-free environments. Informants in Georgia versus Armenia perceived greater support for tobacco control from various sectors (e.g. government, community). No differences were found by condition assignment. This paper provides a foundation for presenting subsequent analyses of this ongoing trial. These analyses indicate wide variability regarding NCD-related activities and support across communities and countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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