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About the Project
Rationale: Understanding and measuring how people receive and perceive tobacco-related messages, both pro- and anti-tobacco, is essential to develop interventions that de-legitimize and de-normalize tobacco use. The changing media environment, the changing ethnic and racial landscape of the nation, and the continuing disparities in tobacco use warrant a precise measure of how people from low socioeconomic and minority racial/ethnic groups are exposed to tobacco messages.
Purpose: In 2006, TReND launched its first primary data collection project. The Tobacco-Related Messages and Media (TeRMM) project is a multi-site collaborative of four National Cancer Institute Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities Community Network Programs (CNPs), the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Legacy Foundation
. The purpose is to develop and validate an index to measure exposure to tobacco-related messages and media that is sensitive to the media consumption patterns of various racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. The project involves a four-phase approach to develop an exposure to tobacco-related media and messages (TeRMM) index.
- Phase 1: Conduct focus groups with a diverse range of participants drawn from four communities (American Indians, Hispanic/Latinos, urban blue-collar African Americans and blue-collar Whites) to explore media use, message exposure, and information-seeking behaviors of the audience for tobacco-related messages and media.
- Phase 2: Develop a battery of items to measure exposure that will constitute the TeRMM index and conduct cognitive testing of these items.
- Phase 3: Test the TeRMM index in a national survey to establish its reliability and validity among various sociodemographic groups.
- Phase 4: Disseminate the items to the field of tobacco control researchers and practitioners for future use.
Impact: Once validated, the TeRMM index will be published and made available for use by tobacco control researchers. This project will contribute to our knowledge on information seeking behaviors among low socioeconomic and minority racial/ethnic groups, provide a tool that other researchers can use to better understand media exposure among specific groups, and inform the development of interventions that de-normalize tobacco use for low socioeconomic and minority racial/ethnic groups.
Research Team
Principal Investigators
K. Vish Viswanath, PhD
Harvard School of Public Health
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Laura Beebe, PhD, MPH
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Eliseo Perez-Stables, MD
University of California, San Francisco
Donna Vallone, PhD, MPH
American Legacy Foundation
Co-Investigators
Anna Napoles-Springer, PhD
Redes En Acción: National Latino Cancer Research Network
University of California, San Francisco
Sherrie Wallington, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Project Staff
Josephine Crisostomo, MPH (Project Director)
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Contact Us
Principal Investigator
K. Vish Viswanath, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Society, Human Development and Health
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Medical Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
vish_viswanath@dfci.harvard.edu
Project Director
Josephine Crisostomo, MPH
Center for Community-Based Research
Department of Medical Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
josephine_crisostomo@dfci.harvard.edu
Project Activities and Findings
TeRMM Item Index and Technical Documentation (not yet available)
Not yet available.
Rose A, Vallone D, Beebe L, Perez-Stable E, Viswanath KV (August 2010). Tracking tobacco-related message and media (TERMM) exposure to the underserved: A critical component of tobacco control monitoring. Oral presentation at the World Cancer Congress of International Union against Cancer, Shenzhen, China.
Vallone D (December 2008). Reducing tobacco-related health disparities: Promoting behavior change through media campaigns in underserved populations. Oral presentation at the NIH Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities, National Harbor, MD.
Vallone D (April 2008). Evaluating tobacco-related media messages: Reaching and influencing teen girls. Oral presentation at The College of Problems with Drug Dependence Conference on Women and Smoking: Understanding Socioeconomic Influences.
Viswanath K (March 2009). Examining tobacco message and media exposure to the underserved: Exposure to the Tobacco-Related Messages & Media (TeRMM) Index. Oral presentation at the 14th Annual World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Mumbai, India.
Viswanath K (March 2009). Testing message effects among bihar school teachers: An empirical analysis. Oral presentation at the 14th Annual World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Mumbai, India.
Viswanath K (March 2009). The role of media in promoting and reducing tobacco use: Findings from the National Cancer Institute’s Tobacco Monograph 19. Tobacco marketing: Summary and implications. Oral presentation at the 14th Annual World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Mumbai, India.
Viswanath K, Vallone D, Beebe L, Fagan P, Wallington S, Napoles-Springer A, Crisostomo J (July 2007). A CNP Partnership to Examine Tobacco Message and Media Exposure to the Underserved. Oral presentation at the NCI Cancer Health Disparities Summit, Bethesda, MD.
Wallington SF, Beebe LA , Crisostomo J, Rose A, Perez-Stable EJ , Baezconde-Garbanati L, Vallone D, Viswanath KV (October 2008). A multi-site examination of tobacco-related message (TeRMM) exposure to the underserved. Poster presentation at the 136th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, San Diego, CA.
Other Resources and Publications
National Cancer Institute. The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use. Tobacco Control Monograph No. 19. Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. NIH Pub. No. 07-6242, June 2008.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and American Legacy Foundation are proud to fund the Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND). Previous support has also been provided by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office on Women’s Health, NCI Office of Women’s Health, and the NCI Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities.
