Summary

The Cultural and Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRCA) was engaged by The Cancer Institute NSW to conduct research with priority CALD populations previously identified as having higher smoking prevalence, specifically, adults aged 18 years or over residing in Greater Sydney who speak Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Hindi as their primary language. Qualitative research was conducted with people from these CALD priority populations over two phases.

The first phase (Phase 1) involved exploratory research with the identified communities to inform the development of campaign territories and subsequent concepts, while the second phase (Phase 2) consisted of testing the campaign material concepts in the form of TV advertisements, posters, and a website landing page.

Phase 1

The objectives and strategic intent of this phase of the research were to:

• Explore the social context of smoking in the identified CALD communities.
• Gain awareness and understanding of motivators and barriers to smoking cessation.
• Identify cessation-related opportunities.
• Provide insights to inform targeted tobacco control activities such as the development of social marketing campaigns and initiatives, smoking cessation support information, and community engagement activities.

CIRCA’s Research Approach

In this phase, CIRCA conducted 12 focus groups with 6-8 smokers in each group, with 84 participants in total. As the people who smoke from these cultural groups were predominantly male, most of the groups were conducted with males. However, two female Arabic-speaking groups were also held, reflecting a higher rate of smoking among Arabic-speaking women.

Research Findings and Outcomes

The research provided insight into these CALD audiences’ current smoking behaviours, their intentions to quit, and what might encourage them to quit. These insights were then used by NSW Cancer Institute to inform the development of TV advertisements and posters targeted to reach these key cultural and language populations, as well as landing page.

The Formative research for tobacco Control Program final report (November 2018),  is available here: https://www.cancer.nsw.gov.au/about-cancer/document-library/culturally-and-linguistically-diverse-priority-pop

Phase 2

The second part of the research was focused on CALD populations who smoked or who had recently quit smoking within the last month, specifically, adults aged 18 years or over residing in Greater Sydney who speak Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Hindi as their primary language.

The purpose of this phase was to explore potential campaign key messages, support service options and broader social marketing and opportunities for reaching and impacting smokers within the identified CALD communities.

The messages and strategies developed drew on the findings of Phase 1 and were tested with relevant CALD communities, with the aim of assessing cultural appropriateness and relevance. The concepts in the research came from a tried and tested territory that has been proven to be effective in helping people consider quitting

The objectives and strategic intent of this phase of the research were to :

• conduct tobacco control concept testing with the identified CALD communities, with the aim of assessing cultural appropriateness and relevance.
• test potential campaign key messages, support service options and broader social marketing, and opportunities for reaching and impacting smokers within the identified CALD communities.

CIRCA’s Research Approach

In this phase, CIRCA conducted 6 focus groups of 6-8 people per group, with 74 people in total. Here again, the bulk of the groups were male-only, but two female Arabic-speaking groups were also held, reflecting a higher rate of smoking among Arabic-speaking women. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, participants recruited for this study took part in either in-language online focus groups or in one-on-one in-depth interviews with a bilingual research consultant. The focus groups were 1.5 hours each and in-depth interviews were 1 hour each and were held throughout May 2020. The in-language focus groups were divided into under 35 and 35+ age groups.

Research Findings and Outcomes

The research provided insight into these CALD audiences’ preferred campaign concept and revealed that there are opportunities to improve each concept design.