Learning Objectives: List how states or other organizations have measured tobacco control success. Assess tobacco control success in their state using a variety of measures.
Abstract: State and national programs have tried to determine if their tobacco control efforts have been successful at the statewide level. Programmatic emphasis, financial constraints and infrastructure should influence which short-term, intermediate and long-term measures are chosen. Measures of success and the justification of their selection including their strengths and weaknesses will be discussed from the perspective of two state’s evaluations of their statewide programs and data collected from ASSIST in its evaluation.
The panelists will discuss:
· ASSIST and other comprehensive, state-level tobacco-control programs have targeted changing the policy environment, such as increasing cigarette prices or passing more restrictive clean indoor air legislation, in addition to promoting changes in individual smoking behavior. For the ASSIST evaluation, an Initial Outcome Index was developed to assess states’ tobacco-control policy activity.
· Evaluations of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program (MTCP) have examined a variety of outcomes. These outcomes have included adult and youth smoking prevalence, cigarette consumption and rate of cessation among past year smokers. Because reduction in ETS exposure is an important goal of the MTCP, prevalence of smoking bans at home and in the work place and reports of hours of ETS exposure in the past 7 days have been examined.
· California has evaluated its tobacco control program using a variety of measures of success. Smoking behavior measures include smoking prevalence, self-reported daily consumption, per capita consumption, and quit rates. Other measures include cigarette price, support for increased taxation, protection of nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, adolescents' perceptions of ease of obtaining cigarettes and of compliance with school no-smoking policies.
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