Support for point of sale tobacco control policies among local elected officials in New York: 2011 to 2014

Background:

In 2005, the New York Bureau of Tobacco Control initiated activities to reduce youth exposure to tobacco product marketing at the point of sale (POS). Community-level efforts originally focused on advocating with retailers to reduce or eliminate tobacco advertising in their stores. In 2009, the Program refocused efforts on local policy change and conducted activities to educate local policymakers. 

As part of the program evaluation, we surveyed local elected officials in 2011 and 2014 to assess their support for four POS policies—a tobacco display ban, a cap on the number of tobacco retailers in a community, a ban on tobacco sales in pharmacies, and a ban on tobacco product sales near schools.

Methods:

Participants: In 2011 and 2014, 679 and 663 (respectively) interviews were completed with county-level and NYC borough-level legislators, health officials and executives. Response rates were 59% and 60%, respectively.

Measures: Participants rated their opinion of each policy on a scale anchored at 1 (Strongly against) to 5 (Strongly in favor). 

Results:

We conducted t-tests to analyze changes in support for each policy between 2011 and 2014.  Display bans had the highest support of any of the policies that were asked about in 2011, and levels of support did not change significantly between 2011 and 2014 (58.6% and 57.6%, respectively).  Support for all other policies was lower than for the display ban in 2011 but increased significantly by 2014.  Support for a retailer cap rose 62%, from 19.5% to 31.5%; support for a pharmacy ban rose 45%, from 38.3% to 55.5%; and support for a ban on tobacco product sales near schools rose 36%, from 42.3% to 58.2%. Findings will be discussed in relation to community and government decision-maker education efforts that took place during this time.