The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: SmokeLess States (SLS) is a nationwide tobacco control initiative that began in 1994, to fund policy objectives for state-level coalitions to reduce tobacco use. SLS includes media (news monitoring), legislation, and strength of tobacco control (SOTC) components. Evaluation can determine SLS: impact on tobacco use and state tobacco programs; relationship to state-level funding; and ability to shape policy decisions.

Methods: SLS evaluation occurred from 2000-2004. Media researchers reviewed daily US English-speaking newspapers in 2002-2003, coding over 40,000 articles for content, prominence, and tone, including how they favored/disfavored tobacco policies. Tobacco-related legislation from 2002-2003 was downloaded via StateNet and Westlaw, and 17 coding categories were developed. Multiple groups of tobacco bills were coded, using Cohen's Kappa to measure inter-rater reliability and establish validity. As a summary measure of state-level tobacco control functioning, SOTC was developed from a survey conducted among all states in 2000, 2002, and 2004, assessing tobacco program resources, components, and organization.

Results: Media analyses revealed dedicating funding focused on a few specific policies resulted in more favorable policy-specific coverage, potentially influencing policies and tobacco-use. Tobacco-related bills for ‘budget', ‘Master Settlement Agreement', and ‘tax' were most commonly introduced, suggesting model bills to identify and track. Legislative inter-rater agreement was better than expected by chance. SOTC showed programs used funding to increase tobacco control activities, with the greatest increase in cessation efforts. Evaluating media, legislation, and SOTC characterizes change in tobacco control programs over time, helping to inform, shape, and focus efforts and resources among policy advocates and coalitions.