Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111496

James C. Hersey, PhD¹, Ghada Homsi, MS¹, Sarah E. Ray, MA¹, Icilda Dickerson, MSA², Beth Schieber, BS², Michael Renner, JD³, Surendra Adhikari, PhD³, and Kenneth Slenkovich, MA³. (1) Research Triangle Institute, 1615 M St. (Suite 740), Washington, DC 20036, 202/728-2486, Hersey@RTI.org, (2) Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, 300 East Broad Street, Suite 310, Columbus, OH 43215, (3) Ohio Tobbaco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, 300 E Broad St., Suite 310, Columbus, OH 43215

Problem: Over the past decade, rates of adult tobacco use have declined only modestly. Then, funds from the Master Settlement Agreement enabled Ohio to fund a countermarketing media campaign and community programs to enable cessation. This study evaluates the impact of this comprehensive tobacco control effort on tobacco use.

Methods: We gathered data through an Adult Tobacco Surveys of 1,601 adults in the summer of 2003 and 4,161 adults in the summer of 2004.

Results: The surveys indicated a significant decrease in Adult Smoking from 25.9% in 2003 to 21.4% in 2004 -- a decrease of 17.4%. Logistic regression found this decrease was significant controlling for education, demographic background, and the price of tobacco. This was more than 4 times rate of annual decrease observed in prior years, as well as in other states around the country. Coincident with this change was a significant increase in the proportion of smokers who were aware of the programs in their community to help them to quit. There were also significant increases in awareness of the harmful health effects of secondhand smoke and in intentions of quitting. The decreases in smoking rates were greater among women, among African Americans, adults with no more than a high school education, and in demographic groups in areas that benefited from media advertising of quit line and development of local programs.

Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of state effort to continue to devote funds to tobacco control efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will be able to understand the role of state and community programs in reducing adult tobacco use.

Keywords: Advocacy, Tobacco Policy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.