Project Description
Title: Social Determinants and Smoking Cessation
Presenter: Dr. David Wetter of Rice University
Presented: April 7, 2016
About the webinar:
Health and health behaviors such as smoking cessation are highly patterned on a socioeconomic gradient. Healthy People 2020 defines the social determinants of health as the “conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age.”
Examples of social determinants include economic/material resources such as income, employment, and access to educational opportunities; social conditions such as neighborhood problems and social trust; and, physical conditions such as bars and tobacco retail outlets. Dr. Wetter will present data showing how a broad range of social determinants impact smoking cessation among underserved populations.
About the presenter:
David W. Wetter, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Elma W. Schneider Chair in the Department of Psychology at Rice University. His work is targeted at eliminating disparities in health-related behavior through translational research. Specific research foci include: theoretical models of addictive and cancer risk behaviors; the development and evaluation of theoretically-based interventions; and, translational research to implement and disseminate those interventions in real world settings. His research spans the continuum from cells to society, and focuses on high-risk and underserved populations, with a major focus on low socioeconomic status individuals, minorities, and women. Dr. Wetter earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a M.S. in Epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has a joint appointment in the Department of Health Disparities Research at MD Anderson and an adjunct appointment at The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Suggested readings:
- Mechanisms Linking Socioeconomic Status to Smoking Cessation: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach (pdf), Health Psychology, 2010
- The Effect of Tobacco Outlet Density and Proximity on Smoking Cessation (pdf), American Journal of Public Health, February 2011