Why are Indian teens and adults addicted to cigarettes more than any other group?
Why do Indians in Minnesota smoke more than Indians in other parts of the country?
How can our cultural values and traditional strengths be used to overcome tobacco misuse?
AICTP Methods
A variety of standard data collection and analysis methods (surveys, focus groups, interviews) will be used in ways that are appropriate and acceptable to the American Indian community. We will get information from elders, adults, youth in the urban American Indian community. We will also use traditional activities such as storytelling, feasts, forums and talking circles to provide opportunities for people of all ages to learn about our activities and react to the information we gather.
Conclusions
Developing a Community-University
partnership to conduct research that fits the reality of American
Indians involves a great deal of time, effort, and trust on
behalf of all partners.
We believe it is necessary to follow a Community-Based Participatory
Research / Reality-Based Research model to:
collect and synthesize community knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about both recreational tobacco misuse and spiritual tobacco use; and
determine community readiness to address the issue and identify community strengths that can be applied to reduce tobacco misuse.
Research on the American Indian community must be done in partnership with the American Indian community to develop appropriate research questions, strategies and interpretation of the results.
Research to Date
Since the summer of 2003 we have gathered a great deal of information from elders within the local American Indian community as well as other community members. These efforts have included:
Elder interviews (n=50) on traditional tobacco use, commercial use and views of the community's use of each.
Elder talking circles (4 groups, 18 participants) on traditional tobacco use, commercial use and views of the community's use of each. Elders were selected based on their knowledge of traditions.
Adult tobacco interviews (n=300) measured attitudes toward
secondhand smoke, prevalence of different types of tobacco
use and exposure, and ideas to prevent tobacco addiction
among American Indian youth.
Link
to: Academic Health Center : School
of Public Health : U of M Home 
AICTP
- Research Design
