Decreasing Campus Smoking With Punishments and Social Pressures

Abstract

This paper reports the effectiveness of a Midwest state university's “100% tobacco‐free” policy. The policy used social pressures and punishments to incentivize tobacco users to no longer consume tobacco on campus. The policy had three distinct periods (Pre‐Promotion, Post‐Promotion, and Post‐Policy). Social pressures and punishments were introduced during the Post‐Promotion and Post‐Policy periods, respectively. Changes in cigarette consumption were inferred by counting the number of cigarette butts found at various locations on campus. A statistically significant decrease in the number of cigarette butts was observed during the Post‐Promotion period. After the initial drop, tobacco use remained constant for the remainder of the period. An additional decrease was observed once punishments were introduced in the third period. However, the number of cigarette butts observed on campus remained significantly above zero. Further research is needed to understand how smokers substitute across time, location, and tobacco products after the implementation of similar policies. (JEL I11, C99, I12)

Development and evaluation of smoke-free or tobacco-free policies in university settings: a systematic scoping review

“…Impact only studies were predominantly quantitative (30/35, 85.7%), mostly based on cross-sectional surveys collecting information about various indicators of impact (further described below). Some impact studies included empirical research used to test interventions aimed at improving the acceptance or use of a policy, such as before-after studies [33,39,47,62,[75][76][77][78][79], or quasi-experimental interventions [37,48].…”

“…Most studies described the institutionalization of total bans (43/75, 57.3%); 20 studies (26.7%) reported partial bans only; 10 studies (13.3%) reported a mix of partial and total bans, as they analyzed the situation in various institutions; the remaining 2 studies described a progressive policy development from a partial to a total ban in the same institution (one in Brazil [32] and one in Ireland [44][45][46]). A total of 8 studies (all published between 2016 and 2019 and all coming from the United States) specifically mentioned electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) in the policy [69,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84]; only 3 studies looked at the prevalence of e-cigarette smoking before and after the introduction of a ban [79,80,84], reporting mixed results, with no changes [80], or an increase in e-cigarette consumption after adoption of a SF/TF policy [79,84].…”

“…They also were tasked to train university personnel on the policy and how to deal with violators; developing an enforcement strategy; and changing the university's physical environment (e.g., removing ashtrays or smoking areas). A few other studies described the establishment of student ambassador programs [74,78,83] or coalitions within the same institutions [88,89] or among different universities [55].…”

Cigarette Sales Promotion Pattern and Smoking Behavior of Sellers in Mulawarman University, Samarinda

“…21 Based on the impact on the environment and health of students, universities need to spend optimal resources on preventing the use and distribution of cigarettes. 22,23 The consumer decision-making process is influenced by internal factors such as personal factors (lifestyle, work, personality, age, and life cycle stages), psychological factors, and external factors such as products, prices, places and promotions), 12,24 social factors (reference groups and family), cultural factors18.…”

Tobacco‐free policy reduces combustible tobacco byproduct on a large university campus

“…Observation‐session timing and location must be chosen carefully to accurately represent policy effects. Alternatively, combustible tobacco typically produces a permanent product 1 that (a) remains stable after discarding and (b) is easily tracked across sessions (e.g., Clemons et al, 2018; McIntosh et al, 2016; Seitz et al, 2011), and thus could be a useful indicator of behavior change.…”