In response to CDC-RFA-23-0015, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) is proposing to leverage over 30 years of experience implementing strategies and activities aimed at supporting cancer prevention and control and tobacco control initiatives to accelerate the decline in commercial tobacco use and reduce the incidence/mortality of tobacco-related cancers, by focusing on prevention and control efforts for people with disabilities (PWD) including veterans, experiencing a higher burden of tobacco- and cancer-related health disparities. Together with the Lakeshore Foundation, the proposed project creates the National Network for Tobacco Control, Cancer Prevention and Health Equity for People with Disabilities (National Network), establishes a Community of Practice (CoP) with state chapters, provides training and technical assistance (TTA) to these partners, and supports a mass reach health communication strategy, all to advance health equity and address social determinants of health (SDOH).
The proposal details the approach of NACDD, Lakeshore, a national expert of supporting PWD, and other key partners to address SDOH and advance health equity for PWD, including veterans through the provision of support, such as funding, training, technical assistance, and creation and dissemination of resources. NACDD, Lakeshore and the National Network efforts will lead to the expected outcomes: 1) Increased participation in CoP among community leaders, partners from critical sectors, coalitions, subject matter experts (SMEs), CoP members and National Network members; 2) Increased knowledge through training and technical assistance of evidence-based/promising practice policy, systems, and environmental change interventions and mass reach health communication efforts focused on advancing health equity by addressing SDOH; and 3)Advancing health equity by assisting programs/partners/coalitions in the increased implementation of evidence-based/promising practice PSE change interventions, innovative interventions addressing upstream SDOH to advance health equity and mass reach health communication efforts.
Smoking is the leading cause of death in the United States; with more than 16 million people living with a disease caused by smoking. In the U.S., PWDs are more likely to smoke than adults without disabilities, and it is estimated that veterans use tobacco at much higher rates than non-veterans. These factors combined present NACDD with an opportunity to leverage its cancer prevention and control, tobacco control experience, and capability in building national networks, establishing CoP, providing TTA and leading health communication efforts to support interventions for commercial tobacco- and cancer-related health disparities and advance health equity and address SDOH for people with disabilities, including veterans.
