Exploring the Perceived Effectiveness and Cultural Acceptability of COVID-19 Relevant Social Media Intervention Content Among Alaska Native People Who Smoke: The CAN Quit Study

With the COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms have potential for reach and effectiveness to motivate smoking cessation and use of evidence-based cessation treatment. This study builds on our prior community participatory approach to developing content postings for the CAN Quit Facebook intervention among Alaska Native (AN) people who smoke. With input from a community advisory committee, we selected new content on COVID-19 preventive practices (e.g., masking) and evaluated them using a validated, six-item perceived effectiveness (PE) scale as well as a single item assessing cultural relevance. We obtained feedback on six content postings (two videos and four text/pictures) from an online survey administered to 41 AN people (14 men, 27 women) who smoke in Alaska statewide. Participants ranged in age from 22-61 years and 49% resided in rural Alaska. PE scale scores were high across postings, ranging from 3.9-4.4 out of a maximum score of 5.0. Cultural relevance item scores ranged from 3.9-4.3. We found no appreciable differences by sex, age, or rural/urban location for PE scale or cultural relevance scores. This study adds new information on the adaptation, acceptability, and PE of content on COVID-19 preventive practices for a smoking cessation intervention specifically tailored to AN people.