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INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH PROMOTION RESEARCH (IHPR)

Current Projects Fact Sheets

Texas Tobacco Prevention Initiative: Evaluation and Technical Assistance in Media Campaign for TDH Prevention Pilot Project

SUMMARY

This project corresponded to the initial seven years of the Texas Tobacco Prevention Initiative (TTPI). The project, which has been transformed into local coalition-based programs in different communities throughout Texas, used research and media as part of a comprehensive tobacco prevention pilot study in East Texas. The media campaign promoted tobacco control with voluntary and involuntary exposure directed at special populations and youths within nine designated communities. Media evaluation served to create more effective tobacco prevention media activities for the state.

FUNDING

Texas Department of Health
2000-2006
Project No. 744-744-7444

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

  • Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH
    IHPR, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

  • Luis Velez, MD, PhD
    IHPR, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • Kipling Gallion, MA
    IHPR, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

COLLABORATORS

  • University of Texas at Houston, School of Public Health
  • Texas Department of State Health Services, Office of Tobacco Control and Prevention
  • Texas A&M University at Prairie View
  • Texas A&M University’s School of Rural Health
  • University of Houston
  • University of Texas at Austin, Department of Kinesiology
  • Southwest Texas State University
  • Texas Southern University
  • West Texas A&M
  • Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse
  • M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
  • American Cancer Society

LOCATION/SERVICE AREA

East Texas communities in Beaumont, Port Arthur and greater metropolitan Houston

CONCLUSIONS

Because settlement proceeds allocated for tobacco control in Texas are insufficient for statewide activity at federally recommended funding levels, the Texas Department of State Health Services used available funds in quasi-experimental pilot studies with varying amounts of support provided for selected parts of the state. Trends in tobacco use were measured in telephone surveys of 7,998 (2000), 5,150 (2002), and 5,721 (2004) adults. Prevalence of cigarette smoking declined by almost one-third in the pilot area where comprehensive and sustained pilot activities to reduce tobacco use were organized at close to the federally recommended funding level. Significantly smaller reductions were observed in other parts of the state. In the group with the highest use, white non-Hispanic men, cigarette consumption declined by half in the pilot area. It is reasonable to expect similar reductions in tobacco use if funds are provided for statewide expansion of the pilot activities.

PUBLICATIONS

  • McAlister, AL, Huang, P, & Ramirez, AG. 2006. Settlement-funded tobacco control in Texas: 2000-2004 pilot project effects on cigarette smoking. Public Health Reports, 121(3), 235-238.

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