Outreach to California Medicaid Smokers for Asian Language Quitline Services

Abstract

Introduction: Asian male immigrants have high smoking rates. This article describes outreach approaches in the MediCal Incentives to Quit Smoking project to incentivize California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) calls to the California Smokers' Helpline (Helpline) Asian-language lines. Methods: Outreach efforts adapted MediCal Incentives to Quit Smoking materials for the Asian-language lines. Community-based efforts included outreach at ethnic supermarkets and distribution through community networks. Leveraging the Helpline's Asian print media campaign, three press releases promoted MediCal Incentives to Quit Smoking with Lunar New Year or community physician messaging. MediCal all-household mailings with tracking codes also included the Asian-language lines. Helpline caller characteristics and trends were examined for project period 2012 −2015. Analyses were conducted in 2018. Results: Among 4,306 Asian American Pacific Islander MediCal callers, there were 37% Asian-speaking Asian Americans (9.5% Chinese, 17.2% Vietnamese, and 10.5% Korean); 44% English-speaking Asian Americans; 9% Pacific Islanders; and 10% Asian American Pacific Islander not otherwise specified. Almost 10% of Asian-speaking Asian Americans were activated by the financial incentive and this was similar for all-household mailings, although this was lower than the other groups. MediCal calls to the Asian-language lines increased, from an average of 18 calls/month to 47 calls/month (162% increase) in the first and last 12 project months respectively. Community outreach was limited by timing and sustainability. The 3-month call totals before and after the Asian-language press releases were significantly greater for Asian-speaking calls than for English-speaking calls (Cochran−Mantel−Haenszel p < 0.001, OR=1.70, 95% CI=1.45, 1.99). Conclusions: Whereas community outreach is challenging, promising population-based methods for in-language, culturally tailored outreach can include press releases with ethnic media and direct-tomember mailings. Supplement information: This article is part of a supplement entitled Advancing Smoking Cessation in California's Medicaid Population, which is sponsored by the California Department of Public Health.

Perceptions, Beliefs, and Experiences of Asians and Micronesian Islanders on Family Health History Genetic Cancer Screening Community Outreach

“…Community partners serve as gatekeepers, advocates, and health educators in their communities [8]. Prior researchers reported strategies on building trust or overcoming mistrust such as researchers and HCPs engaging with community leaders and community members throughout the research process, including addressing priorities identified by community leaders and community members; co-developing agreements on how partners would like to learn and work together; co-developing and co-implementing the study or program purpose and procedures; sharing to the communities about learned information; and community partners having the time to assess the intentions of the researchers [5,6,8,[28][29][30]. Our findings suggest that current public health education outreach efforts may be impacted even with the best of intentions designed to promote understanding, education, and action due in part to generic messaging.…”

Advancing Smoking Cessation in California's Medicaid Population

“…In this issue, Tong et al, 19 Vijayaraghavan and colleagues, 20 Saw et al, 21 and Dove and colleagues 22 describe various outreach strategies to low-income, American Indian, African American, Asian, Latino, white, and pregnant women/women with children populations and their impact on increasing calls to the CSH. As noted by Hood-Medland et al, 23 one of the most successful outreach methods leveraged existing "all-household" mailings to California's 14 million Medi-Cal members.…”

The Medi-Cal Incentives to Quit Smoking Project: Impact of Statewide Outreach Through Health Channels

“…With high tobacco use and mortality rates among AIANs, 31−33 understanding how quitlines may be promoted with and utilized by specific populations, like AIAN, is a growing and important area. 34,35 Other articles in this Supplement examine the impact of MIQS incentives and outreach on Helpline callers who are African American, Latino, and white 36 ; Asian American Pacific Islander 23 ; and pregnant and parenting women. 37 The Medi-Cal callers during MIQS reflect characteristics of the sickest and most vulnerable populations that can have a tremendous health benefit from smoking cessation and elimination of smoke exposure.…”