The Effectiveness of State-Level Tobacco Control Interventions: A Review of Program Implementation and Behavioral Outcomes

In 2001, nearly one billion dollars will be spent on statewide tobacco control programs, including those in California, Massachusetts, Arizona, and Oregon, funded by cigarette tax revenues, and the program in Florida, funded by the state's settlement with the tobacco industry. With such large expenditures, it is imperative to find out whether these programs are working. This paper reviews the effectiveness of the statewide tobacco control programs in California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Oregon, and Florida. It focuses on two aspects of process evaluation—the funding and implementation of the programs and the tobacco industry's response, and four elements of outcome evaluation—the programs' effects on cigarette consumption, adult and youth smoking prevalence, and protection of the public from secondhand smoke. The paper formulates general lessons learned from these existing programs and generates recommendations to improve and inform the development and implementation of these and future programs.