Prevention of commercial tobacco use among Native American youth

Culturally grounded approaches to commercial tobacco use (CTU) prevention among Native American youth remain limited. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of the Talking Circle Intervention (TCI) and explored preliminary trends in CTU and Native Reliance (cultural identity).

A one-group pretest-posttest design was utilized with a community-based participatory research approach. A total of 20 Native American youth ages 10-12 were recruited using nonrandom convenience and snowball sampling approaches from a rural Midwestern tribal community. Primary indicators of feasibility included a priori set benchmarks of ≥70% recruitment, ≥ 80% retention, and ≥ 90% data completeness and achievement of criterion (target enrollment, follow-up completion, complete data sets). Exploratory outcomes included CTU and Native Reliance (cultural identity), assessed at baseline and 3-months. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, confidence intervals, and single group paired t-test.

Primary indicators of feasibility in terms of predefined criterion were met. Benchmark findings included 100% recruitment within the planned timeframe, 100% retention at 3 months, and 100% data completeness across measures. Exploratory analyses indicated a modest decrease in study participant reported CTU scores and an increase in Native Reliance (cultural identity) scores over the study timeframe.

Although observed trends in CTU and cultural identity suggest potential promise, these results are preliminary and must be interpreted with caution. Further research using a larger sample size and a randomized controlled design to evaluate the effectiveness of the TCI is warranted and will further clarify how cultural identity functions as a protective factor against CTU.