Culturally Tailored Materials for Smoking Cessation and HIV Care Adherence Among Hispanic Adults: Protocol for Content Development and Formative Evaluation (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Hispanic adults living with HIV who smoke cigarettes experience unique stressors (e.g., discrimination and stigma), which increase their risk of developing health disparities. Among Hispanic adults, anxiety sensitivity (AS) may worsen mood management problems, which is a leading barrier to smoking cessation for this group. Interventions targeting AS can improve HIV-specific outcomes and smoking cessation. However, no work has culturally tailored an AS reduction program to improve the quality of life for Hispanic smokers living with HIV. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to adapt and refine culturally tailored intervention content targeting smoking cessation, AS reduction, and HIV management among Hispanic adults. METHODS Intervention content was developed and resulted in linguistically unique versions of the content in English and Spanish for Hispanic subgroups identifying as Mexican/Mexican American (M/MA), South American (SA), and Central American (CA) adults. This pilot study consisted of Hispanic adults (N=80), divided into three subgroups: M/MA, CA, and SA adults living with HIV who smoked. Study procedures included self-report assessments and a semi-structured interview involving the viewing of culturally tailored treatment videos to provide feedback on content relevance, appropriateness, and ease of understanding. RESULTS Upon completion of the study, qualitative and quantitative data collected will be used to further refine and adapt the intervention content for Hispanic adults (i.e., M/MA, CA, and SA). CONCLUSIONS Future work would integrate the refined culturally tailored content into the Vital app, which would be tested in a larger randomized controlled trial to improve health disparities and access to healthcare within the Hispanic community.