Rendez-vous 134
Friday, March 22 2002
Thank you Kymberle for accepting our rendez-vous. May I ask you to introduce yourself ?
Kymberle Landrum: I am Kymberle Landrum and I am a NCI-Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health. I received my masters degree in Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Currently, I am working on my doctorate in Public Health from UT-Houston School of Public Health. I have been a practicing public health practitioner for three years.
Before I came to Houston, I was the program coordinator for Mobile Clinical Services for urban, at-risk populations at the Tulane-Xavier National Center of Excellence in New Orleans, Louisiana. Currently, I am the High School and College Tobacco Cessation program coordinator at UT's Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research (CHPPR).
I began working in tobacco control when I arrived at UT-H School of Public Health. At first, I was responsible for coordinating and implementing tobacco cessation interventions for high school students. My responsibilities then expanded to coordinating and implementing tobacco cessation interventions for college students.
Q1. You are preparing the launch of a quit and win contest in Houston. Can you give us a little background about this initiative: when and how did you come up with the idea, is that the first such contest you organize, what are the main partners, sponsors?
Kimberle Landrum: Yes, we are preparing to launch two quit and win contests, actually. We will sponsor a Quit & Win contest specifically for selected colleges in our target population. We are also participating in the 2002 International Quit & Win contest. Our principal investigator and program director, Drs. Alfred McAlister and Angela Meshack (respectively) conducted a Quit & Win contest in previous years in Beaumont, TX (one of our target areas). The contest was extremely successful. We decided to conduct the contest as an incentive for college students to quit smoking.
The rules of the College Quit & Win contest are simple. Smokers are to remain smoke-free for one month, beginning April 8, 2002 until May 8, 2002. Interested students can register at designated locations on their campuses. We will select one winner from those who registered for the contest. The participant will be biomedically validated to confirm their non-smoking status. If the participant's test is validated, they will be the winner for their campus. There will only be one winner for each campus. A total of four campuses are participating. The International Quit & Win contest rules are similar to the college quit and win. However, the winner of the International Quit & Win contest will be eligible to win an international prize of $10,000 and six regional prizes of $5000.
Q2. While for the moment there are not so many quit and wins taking place in the US, other organizations are considering giving it a try. Could you share with us your experience about how best to get ready? How big a budget do you need? How many people are involved? For how long?
Kimberle Landrum: There are many ways one could organize a quit and win contest. The best way to get ready to organize a quit and win contest is to make sure you have the support of the community where you will sponsor the contest. The college campuses and the surrounding communities are very supportive of our efforts and are helping us advertise for both contests. Many of our community contacts will be distributing flyers and registration forms within their communities to promote the contests.
Q3. How do you evaluate the success of the contest? Do you have goals in terms of the number of participants you are trying to reach? the number of people who will try to quit? who will succeed?
Kimberle Landrum: We will evaluate the success of our contests by the number of people who register. For the International Quit & Win contest, we would like to have at least 3,000 residents of the Houston area register.
Q4. Quit and win rely on incentives. What can people win (beside the most important improving their health)? How do you plan to inform the public about the contest? Did you partner with TV/radio stations, newspapers?
Kimberle Landrum: Incentives- Each winner of the college quit and win contest will receive $200. The International Quit & Win contest is giving one $10,000 incentive and six $5,000 regional incentives.
Advertising- We are advertising for the college quit & win contest by posting flyers on the campuses, making presentations to student organizations and an email campaign. We plan to advertise or the International Quit & Win contest by posting flyers in surrounding communities, ads in local newspapers, and we are also promoting the International Quit & Win contest via the Internet.
Q5. The chances of quitting are enhanced by the use of NRTs and/or bupropion. Are those products and their manufacturers involved in the contest?
Kimberle Landrum: The manufactures of NRTs and/or bupropion are not involved in the college quit and win contest. However, I am not sure whether the manufactures are involved in the International Quit & win contest.
Thank you Kimberle for taking the time to be with us today.
Rendez-vous is supported by a contract from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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