Introducing the Research of Dr. Monica Webb Hooper

Dr. Monica Webb Hooper is the Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). In this role, Dr. Webb Hooper oversees all aspects of NIMHD and supports the implementation of science visioning recommendations to improve minority health, reduce health disparities, and promote health equity. Dr. Webb Hooper has dedicated her career to the scientific study of minority health and racial/ethnic disparities, focusing on chronic illness prevention and health behavior change. One of her research areas that is of particular interest to The LOOP is her work in the area of tobacco use and cessation among racial and ethnic minorities. Some of her recent publications include:

• Webb Hooper et al. (2020). Associations between perceived racial discrimination and tobacco cessation among diverse treatment seekers. Ethnicity & Disease, 30(3), 411-420. Finding: Perceived discrimination is negatively related with tobacco cessation.
• Webb Hooper et al. (2021). Randomized controlled trial testing a video-test tobacco cessation intervention among economically disadvantaged African American adults. Psychology of Addictive Behavior, 35(7), 769-777. Finding: A culturally specific mobile health intervention in a sample of economically disadvantaged African American adults demonstrated positive effects on Nicotine Replacement Therapy use and short-term abstinence.
• Webb Hooper (2019). Racial/ethnic differences in physiological stress and relapse. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(17), 3090. Finding: Environmental stressors have an impact on relapse of African American smokers.
  
  

In addition, Dr. Webb Hooper’s research group was the first to conduct a randomized intervention study of tobacco use in African Americans that effectively delineated a method to create culturally specific interventions with demonstrated long-term success. Dr. Webb Hooper’s research has contributed to making Pathways to Freedom: Leading the Way to a Smoke-Free Community an evidence based smoking cessation program for African Americans. Pathways to Freedom addresses issues specific to African Americans, such as targeted advertising campaigns and historical, cultural, and socioeconomic influences.

Learn More: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/qu...