Newswise — Budget cuts to tobacco control programs significantly reduce their effectiveness, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and RTI International.
The study, published in the online edition of Tobacco Control, assessed the effects of dramatic reductions in funding for the Florida Tobacco Control Program in June 1999. They found that those budget reductions had immediate effects on program exposure as well as teens' thoughts about starting to smoke. After budget reductions, fewer teens were opposed to initiating smoking.
"Budget cuts to the program had large effects on exposure to televised anti-smoking ads and stalled progress in promoting non-smoking intentions among Florida teens," said Jeff Niederdeppe, Ph.D, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin and the paper's lead author. "There is a critical need to maintain and enhance funding for state tobacco control programs to continue nationwide progress in preventing youth from initiating cigarette smoking."
The study analyzed survey data from between 1998 and 2000 to assess outcomes changes resulting form the tobacco control budget cuts. The researchers studied how Florida teens' non-smoking intentions, anti-industry beliefs and tobacco control program exposure changed after Florida's 1999 tobacco control program budget cuts.
According to the authors, dramatic reductions in funding for Florida's tobacco control program in 1999 reversed upward trends in recall of the Florida "truth" anti-smoking campaign, which had contributed to large declines in Florida youth smoking prevalence.
"The launch of the national 'truth' campaign in February 2000 likely offset some of the effects of the budget cuts on trends in anti-industry beliefs, which are also linked to reduced smoking initiation," said Matthew Farrelly, Ph.D., director of RTI's Public Health Policy Research Program and the paper's co-author. "However, funding for the national campaign has also been reduced, making it unlikely that there would be similar compensatory effects today."
Research has found comprehensive state tobacco control programs as well as media campaigns to be effective strategies to reduce cigarette consumption and smoking prevalence, and have contributed to smoking declines in California, Massachusetts, and Florida, as well as nationally. However, several states have had dramatic reductions in funding of tobacco control programs.
The study was funded by the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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