Cancer Control Research
5R01CA067838-08
Jones, Alison S.
TOBACCO FARMERS AND TOBACCO CONTROL II
AbstractDESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is for competitive
renewal of funding for Tobacco Farmers and Tobacco Control (TFTC I), an R0l
currently funded by NCI This study will be conducted in North Carolina, where
more tobacco is grown than in all other states combined. In addition, due
substantially to public and policy-maker concern about farmers, North Carolina
lag far behind other states in tobacco control efforts. The original study
(still ongoing) is a randomized intervention trial of 14 major
tobacco-producing counties. Seven counties were assigned randomly to receive an
intensive community organization and education intervention that encouraged
diversification. The seven non-intervention counties served as a no-treatment
comparison group. The efficacy of the intervention was evaluated among a cohort
of over 1,000 tobacco fanners. In this competitive renewal (TFTC II) we propose
to cease implementation of the TFTC I intervention and to monitor its impact,
as well as the impact of the tobacco settlement and other tobacco/agricultural
policy in the seven treatment and seven comparison counties that participated
in TFTC I. In addition, we propose to add a statewide tracking system to the
study to evaluate how the settlement is being implemented (and reactions to
it), both in the 14 counties we have studied over the past three years and
among statewide farmer organizations, health groups, other community
organizations, and policy-makers. Specifically, TFTC II will: (a) assess
whether tobacco farmers in the seven TFTC I intervention counties, compared to
the seven control counties, will be less dependent on tobacco as source of
family income; (b) examine the effects of the tobacco settlement on tobacco
production and public health interests; (c) document the knowledge, attitudes,
and behaviors of tobacco farmers and other tobacco-dependent community
stakeholders about the impacts of changes in the tobacco farming sector; (d)
collect data from health constituencies, tobacco fanners, tobacco-dependent
community stakeholders, and from local, regional and stat economic development
interests concerning the chances of successful diversification; and (e)
identify areas of tobacco farmer misunderstanding of the impacts of tobacco
control programs and tobacco industry business practices and asses; how tobacco
control organizations can target these areas of misunderstanding with
educational campaigns and other programs. We believe that as farmers become
less dependent on tobacco, they will interfere less with tobacco control
efforts. We suggest that farmer diversification and the subsequent economic
development it produces will decrease public and policy-maker resistance to
tobacco control.
|