The Tennessee Youth Tobacco Survey (TnYTS) was conducted during the spring of 1999 and 2000 by the Tennessee Department of Health in cooperation with the Tennessee Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and numerous partners from local health organizations and school districts. The 1999 TnYTS was the first ever comprehensive statewide survey of tobacco use among Tennessee youth. The TnYTS provided valuable baseline data for planning of comprehensive tobacco control and prevention programs targeted at youth.
The TnYTS instrument was comprised of the 54 item core YTS questionnaire that was designed by and for states and also included 12 additional state-specific questions. The TnYTS gathers data on seven topics that are critical to the design of comprehensive youth focused tobacco control and prevention programs: prevalence (cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipes), knowledge and attitudes, media and advertising, minor’s access, school curriculum, environmental tobacco smoke exposure (ETS), and cessation.
Specifically, the TnYTS allowed for examination of respondents smoking status, current tobacco use patterns, age of initiation, cessation efforts, availability of tobacco products, perceived social norms related to use of tobacco products, knowledge of anti-tobacco efforts, social influences of tobacco use, and the susceptibility of never smokers to initiating tobacco use. The presentation will highlight the findings from the 1999 and 2000 TnYTS and will demonstrate the utility of collecting data across the seven topics included in the survey.
Learning Objectives: 1) Identify the principal components of youth tobacco surveillance and evaluation systems 2) Analyze the value of collecting comprehensive data to support the design, implementation, and evaluation of tobacco control and prevention programs
Keywords: Tobacco Control, Tobacco
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Tennessee Department of Health, Tobacco Control Program
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.