Targeting African American nonsmokers to motivate smokers to quit: a qualitative inquiry.

African Americans bear a disproportionate health burden from smoking but are less likely than other populations to engage in cessation treatment. Intervening on adult nonsmokers residing with a smoker might represent an innovative approach to motivate smokers to engage in smoking behavior change. Twelve focus groups were conducted with African American smokers (four groups, n = 27), nonsmokers (four groups, n = 26) and pairs of cohabitating smokers and nonsmokers (four groups, n = 22) to assess attitudes and/or beliefs regarding engaging a nonsmoker in the home in smoking behavior change efforts.

Validation of the support provided measure among spouses of smokers receiving a clinical smoking cessation intervention.

Studies indicate a positive association between social support and smoking cessation. However, clinic-based interventions designed to increase social support have had limited success. Most studies have relied on only the smoker's perceptions of support received while few have assessed the support provider's report of support delivered.

Support needs of overweight African American women for weight loss.

Objectives: To examine social support needs of obese and overweight African American women for weight loss.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with overweight and obese African American women. Data were analyzed using standard grounded theory text analysis.

The impact of perceived treatment assignment on smoking cessation outcomes among African-American smokers.

Background: The double-blind placebo-controlled design is commonly considered the gold standard in research methodology; however, subject expectation bias could subvert blinding.

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to examine the impact of expectation bias. Specifically, we examined perceived treatment assignment on smoking cessation outcome rates among participants enrolled in a clinical trial of bupropion (150 mg SR, BID).