CDC introduced "Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs" in August 1999 to guide state decisions about the use of funds from the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry. The report provides recommended strategies and funding levels for effective programs to prevent and reduce tobacco use, eliminate the public’s exposure to secondhand smoke, and eliminate disparities related to tobacco use and its effects among different population groups.
Best Practices addressed nine components of comprehensive tobacco control programs: community programs, chronic disease programs to reduce the burden of tobacco-related diseases, school programs, enforcement, statewide programs, counter-marketing, cessation programs, surveillance and evaluation, and administration and management.
Recommendations for surveillance and evaluation include participation in national surveillance systems and the use tobacco-specific surveys to compliment broader surveillance data.
In response to these recommendations, New Jersey developed a plan for monitoring and evaluating their tobacco control efforts. The session provides an overview of Best Practices guidelines for surveillance and evaluation, and a summary of NJ’s comprehensive tobacco control program. This introduction is followed by presentations highlighting data collection systems that inform NJ’s evaluation efforts including: 1) the design of the Adult Tobacco Survey; 2) a point in time administration of PRAMS to monitor tobacco use among pregnant women; 3) an innovative secondary analysis of the Youth Tobacco Survey and School Tobacco Survey; and 4) a new survey examining tobacco use in the workplace.
NJ’s experience provides a valuable model for the application of CDC Best Practices recommendations for surveillance and evaluation.
Learning Objectives: (1) Understand CDC's recommendations for tobacco control evaluation and surveillance as outlined in "Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs" and (2) Learn how NJ successfully applied these guidelines in developing its evaluation plan for the statewide tobacco control program.
Keywords: Tobacco Control, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
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.