December 2021
CA Quits Quarterly E-Newsletter
Your quarterly updates on champion's corner, TLC corner, education spotlight along with events, articles, and resources!
CHAMPION'S CORNER
Los Angeles County
Tobacco Control & Prevention Program

The Los Angeles County Tobacco Control and Prevention Program’s Cessation and Clinical Intervention Unit (CCIU) convenes a quarterly workgroup to collaborate and focus on tobacco prevention and cessation.

Starting early 2022, CCIU will begin capacity-building learning collaboratives within the eight Service Planning Areas that cover 10 million people in 88 cities. Over the next 3 years, CCIU will work with health systems and community-based organizations to increase tobacco cessation screenings to the following 8 priority populations throughout the county:

  • African American
  • Asian Americans
  • LatinX
  • Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander,
  • LGBTQ
  • Rural and low socioeconomic communities
  • Persons who are homeless or at risk
  • Persons with mental illness and addiction
CA QUITS CORNER
CA Quits was featured as a case study in the “CDC Best Practices User Guide: Putting Evidence into Practice in Tobacco Prevention and Control.” The 2-page case study describes how CA Quits is helping to scale up health systems change statewide by facilitating learning collaboratives and workgroups, providing technical assistance and training, and fostering collaborations.

The purpose of the CDC Best Practices User Guides is to help commercial tobacco control staff and partners implement evidence-based best practices by translating research into practical guidance. This User Guide’s content also includes useful “how-to” sections for:  

  • Understanding Evidence-Based Interventions
  • Getting Started
  • Disseminating Evidence-Based Interventions
  • Implementing Evidence-Based Interventions
  • Reaching Priority Populations through Dissemination & Implementation
  • Evaluating Dissemination & Implementation Strategies
  • Sustaining Evidence-Based Interventions
  • Providing Support

On December 16, Dr. Elisa Tong (Project Director - CA Quits) also presented about CA Quits at the 14th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination & Implementation in Health for the session “System-wide Implementation of Evidence-Based Interventions and Practices to Promote Health Equity.” We are glad to start sharing the California experience with nationwide partners!
TOBACCO LEARNING COLLABORATIVE
(TLC) CORNER
CA Quits 2021 - Recap and Wrap Up

CA Quits concluded the 2021 TLC on December 13th, where participants shared capstone presentations about the interventions and goals they worked on over the 9-month TLC course. A total of 20 public hospital clinics, community clinics, and partners fully participated in this year’s TLC. The improved TLC structure has allowed participants to network virtually, learn from one another, and receive tailored support from CA Quits experts. Participants identified specific goals for improvement within their organization’s unique settings, and CA Quits provided tools and strategies to reach those goals.  

Topics discussed during the TLC virtual sessions include: 
  • Assessment and integration of tobacco treatment into the clinical workflow,
  • Key concepts of Motivational Interviewing
  • Creating effective messages and materials, and 
  • Using data to understand health disparities.  

It has been a tremendous year of shared learning and support brought together by a wonderful group of health system staff, providers, and community partners! Many thanks to our 20 active TLC partners and the long-term commitment to improving tobacco treatment in CA!

CA Quits is currently recruiting health systems and partners to participate in the April to December 2022 TLC. Recruitment ends February 21, 2022.

Contact Shannon Haggitt: srhaggitt@ucdavis.edu or Moreen Sharma: mmsharma@ucdavis.edu for more information or to participate in the TLC.
EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT
CA Quits Instructs Future Providers
on Tobacco Treatment


In December, CA Quits partnered on trainings for a total of over 150 medical learners at UC Davis and St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, one of the 2021 CA Quits TLC systems. For the 3rd year medical students at UC Davis, Dr. Ulfat Shaikh (Professor of Pediatrics and CA Quits Quality Officer) led a new interactive, in-person module on cough with pediatric colleagues using a case report about E-Cigarette or Vaping Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) during COVID. Moreen Sharma and Cari Shulkin (UCD tobacco treatment nurse), pictured above with Elisa Tong and Shannon Haggitt, led a session with role-playing about Motivational Interviewing for tobacco treatment. Shannon Haggitt and Moreen Sharma conducted virtual trainings with family medicine & internal medicine residents from St. Agnes Medical Center on tobacco treatment best practices, including Ask-Advise-Refer and Motivational Interviewing. 
CESSATION RESOURCES
2021 California Tobacco Trends


This 2021 California Tobacco Control Program Facts and Figures report provides information on 17 indicators and highlights California’s progress to accelerate the decline in tobacco-related disparities among racial/ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities, individuals of lower socioeconomic status, rural, and behavioral health populations. Approximately 20,000 Californians called the California Smokers’ Helpline (now Kick It California) in 2020.

Contents include:
  • Progress in Reducing Tobacco-Related Disparities
  • Tobacco Use
  • Secondhand Smoke and Vape Exposure
  • Tobacco Cessation and Health
An 8-page factsheet of California Tobacco Cessation Data (2017-2018) provides useful data and insights on California adults and high school-age students. Data is presented by age, gender, race, Medi-Cal insurance, education, and area (rural vs. urban).

Key Points for California adult smokers:
  • 11% reported being current smokers in the past month
  • 70% thought about quitting in the next 6 months
  • 56% quit for >1 day in the past year
  • 47% had a professional advise them to quit smoking in the past year
  • 26% had a professional refer them to a cessation program in the past year
  • 10% used nicotine replacement therapy in the past year
  • 5% called a quitline in the past year
ARTICLES
American Medical Association and Truth Initiative: Response to FDA Decision to Permit Marketing of an E-Cigarette Product


In response to the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow marketing of one e-cigarette product (Vuse Solo and its tobacco-flavored e-liquid pods, but not pods of 10 other flavors), the American Medical Association's president published a commentary about the need to protect the health of young people and faster regulatory action. The Truth Initiative has also published a statement about key concerns including the delay on menthol products, gaps in marketing restrictions, dual-use health risks, very high nicotine levels compared to other countries, and the need for a carefully regulated approach for harm reduction. Of note, the Food and Drug Administration has only approved marketing for sale and has a separate approval process for harm reduction or smoking cessation claims.
UPCOMING EVENTS