About the Project
Rationale: While tobacco use causes disease and preventable death in all segments of the population, certain racial and ethnic minorities and individuals of lower SES bear a disproportionate share of the overall health burden. A recent Surgeon General’s report entitled "Reducing Tobacco Use" identifies the elimination of tobacco-related disparities among racial/ethnic and SES groups as a major goal in the campaign to reduce the health and economic burden of tobacco use (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/tobacco_use). To meet this goal, additional research examining the effectiveness of alternative tobacco control policies on smoking cessation decisions among members of racial/ethnic and SES groups is needed. While numerous econometric studies have examined the determinants of smoking propensity and intensity in the United States, few have focused on the impact of state tobacco control policies on individual’s smoking cessation decisions, and none have focused on the differential effect of state tobacco control policies on smoking cessation decisions among individuals of different racial/ethnic and SES groups.
Purpose: The purpose of this project is to examine the impact of state-level tobacco control policies on smoking cessation decisions among individuals of different racial/ethnic and socio-economic status (SES) groups in the United States. Specifically, TReND’s investigators will attempt to quantify the differential effect of cigarette prices and cigarette excise taxes, smoke-free air laws, and youth access laws on previous smoking cessation attempts, intentions to quit smoking in the future, and actual cessation efforts among Whites, African Americans, American Indians & Alaskan Natives (Aleuts and Eskimos combined), Asians and Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and individuals of different SES defined by income and education employing two large nationally representative datasets. These datasets include: (1) 15 cross-sectional waves of data from the 1992-2003 Tobacco Use Supplements to the Current Population Surveys (TUS-CPS) and (2) the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort (NLSY97).
Impact: Findings from this project will build on an existing project funded by TReND by focusing exclusively on cessation efforts. TReND’s investigators will disseminate the study findings through peer-reviewed journal publications and presentations at major professional conferences. Findings from this project will be used to better understand the effects of current state policy efforts on smoking cessation behaviors and inform the continued drive for developing effective state tobacco control policy initiatives that encourage smoking cessation among those suffering disproportionately from tobacco-related disparities.
Research Team
John A. Tauras, PhD(Principal Investigator)
University of Illinois at Chicago
Deborah McLellan, MHS
Brandeis University
Dennis R. Trinidad, PhD, MPH
Claremont Graduate University
Donna Vallone, PhD, MPH
American Legacy Foundation
Contact Us
Principal Investigator:
John A. Tauras, PhD
Associate Professor of Economics
University of Illinois at Chicago
tauras@uic.edu
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