Military Line Leadership and Tobacco Control: Perspectives of Military Policy Leaders and Tobacco Control Managers

Abstract

Despite progress in policy changes, tobacco use rates are still high in the military. Little is known about the views of those who create and implement tobacco control policies within the Department of Defense. These individuals determine what policy initiatives will be developed, prioritized, and implemented. We conducted key informant interviews with 16 service-level policy leaders (PLs) and 36 installation-level tobacco control managers (TCMs). PLs and TCMs believed that line leadership view tobacco control as a low priority that has minimal impact on successful mission completion. They also identified cultural factors that perpetuate tobacco use, such as low cost and easy accessibility to tobacco, smoke breaks, and uneven or unknown enforcement of current tobacco policies.

Cigarette Prices in Military Retail: A Review and Proposal for Advancing Military Health Policy

“…As was reviewed previously, both formative data 11,12,44 and national pricing studies 5,6 demonstrate that tobacco prices in military retail are considerably lower than stores known for low prices, such as Walmart, and are an incentive for use. Thus, we believe that DoDI 1330.09 has failed to accomplish its stated purpose of communicating that tobacco use is dangerous to health and detrimental to military readiness.…”

Health in the News: An Analysis of Magazines Coverage of Health Issues in Veterans and Military Service Organizations

“…Given the negative toll tobacco use has on the health of veterans and military personnel (e.g., tobacco-related costs to the military and the VA were over $560 million and $5 billion per year, respectively), 18-20 the fact that it is not more frequently addressed by VMSOs is a missed opportunity to communicate critically important health information to our nation's veterans and military personnel. VMSOs could play an important role in combating the culture of tobacco which is prevalent in the armed services 8,21-23 and VMSOs should be encouraged to join the military and VA in changing the culture of tobacco among our nation's military personnel and veterans.…”

Perspectives of US military commanders on tobacco use and tobacco control policy

“…For example, military policy makers and health promotion managers believe that line commanders do not perceive tobacco use as having significant impact on military readiness and place a low priority on tobacco control. 25 Similarly, only 1.5% of health messages and 0.08% of all line commander's' messages written for installation newspapers in 12 months' worth of military installation papers addressed tobacco use. 26 This study is the first to directly interview US military line commanders, and assess their perspectives on factors that encourage tobacco use in the US military, tobacco's impact on military readiness and awareness of tobacco control policies in the military.…”