Adoption of a campus smoke-free policy: An application of Kingdon's Theory of Streams

Issue: Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable and premature death, killing an estimated 443,000 Americans each year. Nationally, the number of smokers who initiated smoking after age 18 increased from 600,000 in 2002 to 1 million in 2010. The progression from occasional to daily smoking almost always occurs by age 26. Nevertheless, there are colleges and universities that are not smoke-free. Description: This study was conducted in 2014 at a public, liberal arts campus in the Southern United States. Faculty, staff, and students, participated in focus groups and completed questionnaires to learn about tobacco use on campus, assess knowledge of current tobacco policies at the university, and determine the attitude climate towards the university’s adoption of a smoke-free policy.  The results of the survey were presented to the university’s administration.  Shortly following the dissemination of the report, the health insurance carrier for the university announced that they were implementing a Tobacco Awareness and Resistance Campaign (TRAC) program that would assess a $50 a month surcharge to employees that use tobacco products.  Lessons Learned: The confluence of the following three factors made the decision to adopt a smoke-free policy by the campus possible: 1) the finding that smoking initiation was taking place during the college years; 2) the dissemination of a report that showed support for a smoke-free policy; and 3) the implementation of the TRAC program by the health insurance company.  Recommendations: This presentation will discuss the benefits of using Kingdon’s Theory of Streams in public policy adoption.