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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Carol Schmitt, PhD, Batelle, 6115 Falls Rd, Suite 200, Baltimore, MD 21209, 410-3722757, schmittc@battelle.org, Frances Stillman, EdD, Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21209, William Trochim, PhD, Policy Analyses and Management, Cornell University, 132MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, and Warren Strauss, ScM, Statistics and Data Analysis Systems, Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave, Columbus, OH 43201.

The Strength of Tobacco Control Index (SoTC) is a rigorously tested and validated metric that provided a basis to evaluate outcomes from the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST). SoTC is a summary measure of tobacco control functioning at the state-level and includes a measure of program resources (funding and staff), a measure of program components (activities and efforts) and a measure of how tobacco control programs are organized to deliver those components (inputs). This measure of state functioning is important since it was demonstrated that states that had stronger infrastructure to deliver tobacco control and produced strong tobacco control programs, as measured by SoTC, had lower cigarette consumption. The survey has been conducted in 1999, for the ASSIST evaluation, and has subsequently been fielded in 2000, 2002 and 2004 to evaluate RWJ SmokeLess States Program. There are now multiple years of data for SoTC on all states. Data from the SoTC survey can be used to assess and characterize change in tobacco control programs over time. For example, between 1999 and 2002 funds for state tobacco control increased. Our data showed that programs used these funds to increase all their program activities and that the greatest increase in efforts was in the area of cessation. Analyses of the 2004 data suggest that as states lose funding they are decreasing their overall tobacco control efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how the SoTC survey has been used to measure state tobacco control programs
• Identify how funding cuts impact state tobacco control porgrams
• Identify tobacco control components that have been impacted by funding cuts

Keywords: Tobacco Control, Tobacco

Related Web page: www.impacteen.org/states/default.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No