Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by McAlister, A. L.
Right arrow Articles by Puska, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by McAlister, A. L.
Right arrow Articles by Puska, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Health Promotion International, Vol. 15, No. 2, 109-112, June 2000
© Oxford University Press 2000

Promoting smoking cessation in Russian Karelia: a 1-year community-based program with quasi-experimental evaluation

Alfred L. McAlister1, Tamara Gumina2, Eeva-Liisa Urjanheimo3, Tiina Laatikainen4, Mihail Uhanov2, Rafael Oganov5 and Pekka Puska4

1 University of Texas, Houston, School of Public Health, Houston, USA, 2 Central Hospital, Pitkäranta, Republic of arelia, Russia, 3 North Karelia Project, Joensuu, Finland, 4 National Public Health Institute, KTL, Helsinki, inland and 5 State Research Centre for Preventive Medicine, Moscow, Russia

Address for correspondence: A. L. McAlister University of Texas, Houston School of Public Health 1200 Hermann Pressler E925 Houston Texas 77030, USA

Cigarette smoking is a major contributor to the East–West health gap in Europe, a situation which is particularly evident in comparisons of mortality and health behavior in Finnish and Russian Karelia. With technical assistance from the North Karelia Project in Finland, a Quit and Win smoking cessation contest was organized in the district of Pitkäranta in Russian Karelia. Local health care workers organized media publicity and community support, including news about competition winners and participants, and distribution of leaflets featuring stories about how local people were able to stop smoking during the Quit and Win contests. The Pitkäranta campaign was evaluated in a quasi-experimental study in which panels of 176 and 202 smokers, identified in a random population sample survey at the outset, were followed for 1 year in Pitkäranta and a comparable neighboring district. Cessation rates were estimated to be 7–26% in Pitkäranta and 1–2% in the comparison area, a statistically significant indication of experimental effects. These findings demonstrate that community campaigns can effectively reduce smoking in the present difficult conditions in Russia.

Key words: community smoking cessation; Russia


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Health Education JournalHome page
A. Charlton, A.-M. Coyne, and S. Horsley
Reducing cancer mortality: Does health promotion work? A discussion paper
Health Education Journal, January 1, 2002; 61(4): 329 - 346.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.