TPOP: Tobacco Policy Options for Prevention

Principal Investigators
Jean L Forster, PhD, University of Minnesota

Funding
National Cancer Institute

Objective
A randomized community trial that assessed the effects of an intervention designed to change local policies and practices related to youths’ access to tobacco.

Methods
The research design included random assignment of 14 communities in Minnesota to experimental and control conditions. Communities in the experimental condition received 32 months of an intervention consisting of direct action tobacco control policy at the local level. Baseline data were collected via surveys of all students in 8th, 9th, and 10th grades in the school districts in each community, and direct tobacco-purchase attempts at all outlets in each of the 14 cities. After the intervention, students in the same grades were surveyed again and tobacco-purchase attempts were again carried out at all outlets.

Results
Students who have smoked a least once were likely to cite social sources for cigarettes. However, more than half of weekly smokers and almost one-third of 10th grade ever smokers reported purchasing cigarettes in the last 30 days. Tobacco-purchase attempts by confederate buyers at all outlets resulted in an overall success rate of 40.8%, lower than previously reported for urban communities. Fifty-five percent of the over-the-counter outlets had no self-service displays of tobacco at baseline. Store factors that predicted purchase success include tobacco locations; purchase success was lower when all tobacco was locked or behind a service counter. The percentage of smokers who reported purchasing their own tobacco soon after starting to smoke was highest in towns where purchase success by teenage study confederate was highest.

Conclusion
These results suggest that sources of cigarettes shift from social to commercial with age and that sources of cigarettes for rural youths may be different than for urban youths.

Materials
Web site:
http://www.epi.umn.edu/tobacco/research_tpop_1.html.

Project policy planning manuals and materials are available by contacting Anne Hetletvedt (hetletvedt@epi.umn.edu), University of Minnesota.

Publications
Forster JL, Wolfson M, Murray DM, Blaine TM, Wagenaar AC, Hennrikus DJ: The Effects of Community Policies to Reduce Youth Access to Tobacco. American Journal of Public Health, 88(8): 1193-1198, 1998.