PERCEIVED AND MEASURED AVAILABILITY OF TOBACCO TO YOUTHS IN 14 MINNESOTA COMMUNITIES - THE TPOP STUDY

Introduction: Availability of tobacco to young people is believed to b e an important factor in the onset of tobacco use. We still do not hav e a complete picture of how tobacco is obtained by youths or how acces s can be curtailed. Design: This article describes tobacco availabilit y to youths in 14 communities that are part of a randomized trial, kno wn as TPOP (Tobacco policy Options for Prevention). The data reported here were obtained from student surveys and tobacco-purchase attempts by underage confederates. Results: Students who have smoked at least o nce were likely to cite social sources for cigarettes. However, more t han half of weekly smokers and almost one third of tenth-grade ever sm okers reported purchasing cigarettes in the last 30 days. Tobacco-purc hase attempts by confederate buyers at all outlets resulted in an over all success rate of 40.8%, lower than previously reported for urban co mmunities. Fifty-five percent of the over-the-counter outlets had no s elf-service displays of tobacco at baseline. Store factors that predic ted purchase success include tobacco location; purchase success was lo wer when all tobacco was locked or behind a service counter. The perce ntage of smokers who reported purchasing their own tobacco soon after starting to smoke was highest in towns where purchase success by teena ge study confederates was highest. Conclusions: These results suggest that sources of cigarettes shift from social to commercial with age an d that sources of cigarettes for rural youths may be different than fo r urban youths.