Promoting Smoking Cessation Among Lesbian and Bisexual Women: Lessons Learned From a Location-Based Media Campaign in Western North Carolina

Abstract

Despite well-documented inequities in tobacco use for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations, there is little practical guidance for local public health officials on developing and implementing media campaigns that prioritize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities. In this practice note article, we describe the development and lessons learned from a location-based media campaign to promote tobacco use cessation and raise awareness of QuitlineNC among lesbian and bisexual women in Western North Carolina. The campaign used a digital approach based on cell phone locations and marketing profiles to deliver messages across 4 years (2018–2021). Considerations for practitioners include how our project required messaging adaptation to meet Google’s restrictions against using the word “yours” and the importance of addressing privacy protection concerns with state officials to enable collection of outcome evaluation measures via a conversion pixel (code for capturing metrics).

Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Interventions for Sexual and/or Gender Minority-Identified People and the Theories That Underpin Them: A Scoping Review

“…In practice, these factors were addressed in group counseling sessions by discussing SGM determinants of tobacco use (eg, SGM social norms, SGM industry targeting) and SGM health and weight concerns. Finally, while Caldwell et al 81 practice note did not provide an explicit theoretical basis for the intervention, it described a contextually engaged approach to a smoking cessation messaging campaign in Western North Carolina. The digital approach used cell phone locations and marketing profiles to deliver tailored smoking cessation messages to LB women while they were in the vicinity of a location known to be frequented by LB women in the area.…”

Reactions to a Hypothetical Menthol Cigarette Ban among Sexual- and Gender-Minoritized Communities: A Concept Mapping Study

“…Further, this may also point to promising avenues for intervention via messaging campaigns about quitting with friends, online ads for support resources, and online cessation support programs. Others have reported success in supporting cessation attempts using Internet or messaging campaigns [46][47][48], and electronic-based interventions have been shown to be favorable among SGM populations for other substance-related concerns [49]. This work should be expanded upon to determine the acceptability and feasibility of such smoking cessation supports-among SGM individuals, specificallyfollowing a ban on menthol.…”

Advancing Commercial Tobacco Control and Health Equity Through Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change

“…Mass-reach health communications are a proven, evidencebased strategy in tobacco prevention and control, but there has been little guidance on how to do this using social media that is location-based to reach lesbian and bisexual women. The TPCB regional manager in the Asheville area worked with local media to develop and test images and messages specifically for this population, and this audience-focused message and images approach produced a digital campaign that fostered more online engagement than did a more general audience campaign using messages on the health concerns of smoking associated with higher risks of severe illness from COVID-19 [16].…”