Research-Proven Interventions for Youth Tobacco Prevention

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Submission Date: December 2009

State/Territory Submitted on the Behalf of: West Virginia

States/Territories Involved: West Virginia

Domain Addressed:

Environmental Approaches

Public Health Issue:

  • Rates of tobacco use, both cigarettes and spit/smokeless tobacco, are higher in West Virginia than in the rest of the nation and smoking costs the state well over a billion every year in health care expenses.
  • As a result of the award-winning West Virginia Raze youth empowerment campaign, its regional network of full-time educational area coordinators specifically targeting the high teen tobacco use-rates, Not-On-Tobacco, a program developed by the University of West Virginia Prevention Research Center disseminated by the American Lung Association and companion efforts, more of the state’s high school students say they have never used tobacco,.
  • Sustaining and expanding these successful efforts is essential to continue to combat the tobacco industry practice of recruiting new teen and young adult smokers with targeted marketing.

Program Action:

  • The West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention implements a research-based, comprehensive tobacco control program based upon CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs – 2007 and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services recommendations.
  • Program components are implemented in partnership with the State Department of Education, the West Virginia American Lung Association, and the Division of Health and Human Resources media vendor, The Arnold Agency.
  • The Regional Tobacco Prevention Specialist network is a group of eight specialists located around the State who work full- time facilitating youth tobacco prevention and the Raze youth empowerment movement in mostly in middle and high schools. This network has been instrumental in the positive effects of outreach to youth

Impact/Accomplishments:

  • The Not-On-Tobacco teen tobacco cessation program achieved a 34% quit rate and a 72% reduction in tobacco use over a single school year.
  • The percentage of high school students who report they’ve never used tobacco increased by more than fifty percent over seven years of programming.
  • Raze continues to be represented in all West Virginia counties with a significant increase in attendance for the most recent statewide “Raze On” conference. Also, most West Virginia high school students have heard of Raze.
  • Over eighty percent of eligible students received the Life Skills Training tobacco prevention curriculum, far exceeding the target for the most recent school year.

Program Areas:

Social Determinants of Health, Tobacco

State Contact Information:

WV
Bruce W. Adkins
West Virginia Bureau for Public Health
304-558-1743
bruceadkins@wvdhhr.org

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