10th Blog: Research Updates

This week we've been asked to build a bibliography with sources that we can use in our future presentations. Professor Jeffreys, you've asked us to provide commentary on four different sources, two for each of our possible presentations. Since my research topic tends to integrate both of my emphases (Biology and Sociology) together, I was not sure how to proceed with this assignment. Because of this, I've decided to list the four sources I've found using the Summon search engine that apply to both of my emphases. 

For my presentation, I've decided to research how community characteristics (such as collective efficacy) influence smoking cessation efforts within the community. 

1. Social Norms, Collective Efficacy, and Smoking Cessation in Urban Neighborhoods.
   This journal article discusses how smoking is one of the most preventable causes of death in the modern world. It is well known that community support plays an important part in smoking cessation. Taking this a step further, researchers from this article examine the relationship between both social norms and collective efficacy with smoking cessation in urban neighborhoods. Participants were selected using a "random-digit-dial telephone survey of households in the 59 community districts across New York City." The results to this study were somewhat surprising to me. Researchers found that smoking cessation had less to do with the collective efficacy of local communities, and more to do with the social norms of the local communities. Smoking cessation was found to be more likely in neighborhoods where smoking was considered to be unacceptable, but no significant link was found between levels of collective efficacy and smoking cessation. To me, this research hints that collective efficacy might not be the magical "cure all" drug that Sampson tends to claim it is in "Great American City". 
   
   Karasek D, Ahern J, Galea S. Social norms, collective efficacy, and smoking cessation in urban neighborhoods. American journal of public health. 2012;102:343-e9.
   
   
2. Neighborhood smoking norms modify the relation between collective efficacy and smoking behavior
   
   
   After reading into this article, I found that this research is connected to the first source I've cited and includes some of the same researchers, but seems to have come before the article I cited above. I've decided to include this article, because it sheds more light on the possible link between collective efficacy and social norms in communities in relation to smoking cessation. The interesting thing I found in this article was that when the social norms of a community take a more passive, higher levels of collective efficacy were associated with more smoking. And on the other hand, when there were strong social norms against smoking, collective efficacy was associated with less smoking.  I feel like this association found between collective efficacy and social norms validates Sampson's research on the subject. Sampson states in "Great American City" that collective efficacy can be either a positive or a negative thing. This study demonstrates that well. 
   
   
   Ahern J, Galea S, Hubbard A, Syme SL. Neighborhood smoking norms modify the relation between collective efficacy and smoking behavior. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2009;100:138-145.
   
   
3. "Evaluating community-based programs for eliminating secondhand smoke using evidence-based research for best practices."
   
   This article goes off in the direction of secondhand smoke. I selected this article because secondhand smoke is an important topic to consider when talking about how smoking affects the overall health of a community. This article takes a look at the effectiveness of various community-based programs in eliminating second hand smoke. The researchers found that the highest increase for support in tobacco free establishments came from an increased acknowledgment of the harmful effects of secondhand smoke on children. This finding suggests a possible link between social altruism and smoking within communities. 
   Cramer, M., Roberts, S., & Xu, L. (2007). Evaluating community-based programs for eliminating secondhand smoke using evidence-based research for best practices.Family & Community Health, 30(2), 129-143. doi:10.1097/01.FCH.0000264410.20766.45
   
   
4. "Smoking in 6 Diverse Chicago Communities -- A Population Study."
   
   One of the reasons why I was drawn to this article is because it examines various communities in Chicago. In this study, researchers look at levels of variation in smoking for 6 diverse Chicago communities. They found that in wealthiest, mainly white community, smoking rates were around 18% and as high as 39% in the poorest, mostly black, community. The article goes on to discuss how less than 4% of the funds awarded to the state of Illinois from the Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement are currently being used towards tobacco prevention programs.  This shocked me, because the program I was previously involved in was also funded through MSA funds awarded to Utah (and we were running out of funds). This article suggests that "understanding community-level smoking rates could improve the allocation of resources and assist the shaping of culturally meaningful prevention efforts." This is of particular interest to me. 
   
   Dell, J. L., Whitman, S., Shah, A. M., Silva, A., & Ansell, D. (2005). Smoking in 6 diverse chicago communities--a population study. American Journal of Public Health, 95(6), 1036.