Skip to main content

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Restricting Minors’ Access to Tobacco Products: Community Mobilization with Additional Interventions

CDC

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

These are community-wide interventions aimed at focusing public attention on the issue of youth access to tobacco products and mobilizing community support for additional efforts to reduce that access.

Impact

The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends community mobilization combined with additional interventions —such as stronger local laws directed at retailers, active enforcement of retailer sales laws, and retailer education with reinforcement—on the basis of sufficient evidence of effectiveness in reducing youth tobacco use and access to tobacco products from commercial sources.

Results / Accomplishments

Nine studies (10 intervention arms) qualified for the review.
-Self-reported tobacco use among youths over follow-up periods of 24-48 months: median decrease of 5.8 percentage points (4 studies)
-Retail tobacco sales to youth: median decrease of 33.5 percentage points (9 studies)

The study included in the economic review was a one-year study that modeled the cost effectiveness of active enforcement of tobacco sales to minors on a national level. The intervention included employing minors to attempt tobacco purchases, licensing tobacco vendors, and civil penalties for vendors who illegally sold tobacco products to minors.
-Primary outcome measures consisted of four levels of reduction in youth tobacco use ranging from 5% to 50%. Cost-effectiveness ratios ranged from $44 to $3100 per year of life saved.
-Program costs included personnel, salary, and benefits for minors and for adult inspectors; liability insurance; money to purchase tobacco; transportation; and overhead (analyses were based on enforcement costs of $50, $150, $250, and $350, where marginal expense is lowest at the community level and highest at the federal level).

About this Promising Practice

Primary Contact
The Community Guide
1600 Clifton Rd, NE
MS E69
Atlanta, GA 30329
(404) 498-1827
communityguide@cdc.gov
https://www.thecommunityguide.org/
Topics
Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Health / Adolescent Health
Health / Children's Health
Source
Community Guide Branch Epidemiology and Analysis Program Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Location
USA
For more details
Target Audience
Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Michigan Health Improvement Alliance