Smoke-free signage in public parks: impacts on smoking behaviour.

Objective: Behavioural interventions, such as smoke-free signage, are used to support air quality in public outdoor spaces that are not protected by a smoke-free policy, such as states with preemptive clause legislation. However, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of these interventions. This paper is an evaluation of whether smoke-free signage posted in public parks altered smoking behaviours of park patrons.

Integrated smoking cessation and binge drinking intervention for young adults: a pilot efficacy trial.

Alcohol consumption is strongly associated with cigarette smoking in young adults. The primary aim of this investigation was to complete a pilot evaluation of the efficacy of an integrated intervention that targets both cigarette smoking and binge drinking on the cigarette smoking and binge behavior of young adults at 6-month follow-up. Participants were 95 young adult (M=24.

Brief integrative multiple behavior intervention effects and mediators for adolescents.

This study evaluated the efficacy of a brief integrative multiple behavior intervention and assessed risk factors as mediators of behavioral outcomes among older adolescents. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with participants randomly assigned to either a brief intervention or standard care control with 3-month follow-up. A total of 479 students attending two public high schools participated.

Cracking Down On Youth Tobacco May Influence Drug Use.

This study evaluated the influence of tobacco Possession-Use-Purchase (PUP) law enforcement and illicit drug use and offers. Twenty-four towns were randomly assigned into two conditions. Both conditions focused on reducing minors' access to commercial sources of tobacco.

Are effects from a brief multiple behavior intervention for college students sustained over time?

Objective: This study examined whether 3-month outcomes of a brief image-based multiple behavior intervention on health habits and health-related quality of life of college students were sustained at 12-month follow-up without further intervention.

Methods: A randomized control trial was conducted with 303 undergraduates attending a public university in southeastern US. Participants were randomized to receive either a brief intervention or usual care control, with baseline, 3-month, and 12-month data collected during fall of 2007.

Youth tobacco access and possession policy interventions: effects on observed and perceived tobacco use.

This study evaluated the effects of tobacco Purchase, Use and Possession (PUP) laws on student perceptions of adolescent tobacco use within towns and schools. Twenty-four towns were randomly assigned into two conditions, the experimental condition (E PUP) involved efforts to increase both PUP law enforcement and reduce minors' access to commercial sources of tobacco, whereas the control condition (C) focused only on efforts to reduce minors' access to commercial sources of tobacco. A hierarchical linear modeling analytical approach was selected due to the multilevel data and nested design.

Alcohol price and intoxication in college bars.

Background: Many population studies find that alcohol prices are inversely related to alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, including among college students and young adults. Yet, little is known about the "micro-level" effects of alcohol price on the behavior of individual consumers in natural drinking settings such as college bars. Therefore, we assessed patron's cost per gram of ethanol consumed at on-premise drinking establishments and its association with intoxication upon leaving an establishment.

Effects of youth tobacco access and possession policy interventions on heavy adolescent smokers.

This study evaluated the effects of tobacco PUP (Purchase, Use and Possession) laws on tobacco use patterns among students in twenty-four towns, which were randomly assigned into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group involved both PUP law enforcement and reducing minors' access to commercial sources of tobacco, and the condition for the control group involved only efforts to reduce minors' access to commercial sources of tobacco. The present study found that adolescents in the control group had a significantly greater increase in the percentage of youth who smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day when compared to the experimental group.

An exploratory study of bar and nightclub expectancies.

Objective: The authors identified the principal components of bar and nightclub expectancy in college students and the associations between these factors and the risk behavior of night-clubbing.

Participants: A total of 4,384 undergraduates enrolled at a large, public university participated.

Methods: In the first phase (July-September 2007), the authors collected preliminary data from a convenience sample.

Event-specific analyses of poly-drug abuse and concomitant risk behavior in a college bar district in Florida.

Objective: The authors describe the epidemiology of risk behavior associated with poly-drug use in a college bar district of a large campus community.

Participants: A total of 469 bar patrons participated in the study.

Methods: The authors used self-report data and biological measures collected from patrons outside bars in July and August of 2007.

A field study of bar-sponsored drink specials and their associations with patron intoxication.

Objective: The study examined associations between bar-sponsored drink specials and alcohol intoxication at the patron level.

Method: Data were collected in a college bar district located in a large campus community in the southeastern United States. Random and self-selected samples of patrons were interviewed after exiting college bars at night on four different nights (N=383).

Assessing police community readiness to work on youth access and possession of tobacco.

Researchers are only beginning to investigate how to measure a community's readiness to engage in an intervention. In this study, we investigated the readiness of police departments to deal with tobacco policies about youth access to tobacco and youth possession of tobacco. Police officers in 24 towns completed structured interviews designed to assess each police department's community readiness to enforce tobacco sales and possession laws.

Brief multiple behavior health interventions for older adolescents.

Purpose: This study examined whether brief intervention strategies founded on the Behavior-Image Model and addressing positive images of college and career success could be potentially efficacious in impacting multiple health habits of high-risk adolescents transitioning into adulthood.

Design: Participants were stratified by grade level and drug use and individually randomized to one of the three Plan for Success interventions, with baseline and 1 month postintervention data collections.

Setting: A large, relatively diverse suburban school in northeast Florida.

A randomized trial evaluating tobacco possession-use-purchase laws in the USA.

Tobacco Purchase-Use-Possession laws (PUP) are being implemented throughout the US, but it is still unclear whether they are effective in reducing smoking prevalence among the youth targeted by these public health policies. In the present study, 24 towns in Northern Illinois were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. One condition involved reducing commercial sources of youth access to tobacco (Control), whereas the second involved both reducing commercial sources of youth access to tobacco as well as fining minors for possessing or using tobacco (Experimental).

Efficacy of a brief image-based multiple-behavior intervention for college students.

Background: Epidemiologic data indicate most adolescents and adults experience multiple, simultaneous risk behaviors.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of a brief image-based multiple-behavior intervention (MBI) for college students.

Methods: A total of 303 college students were randomly assigned to: (1) a brief MBI or (2) a standard care control, with a 3-month postintervention follow-up.

Do fines for violating possession-use-purchase laws reduce youth tobacco use?

The present brief report followed children exposed to consequences for violating Purchase, Use, and Possession (PUP) laws over time to assess changes in their smoking status. Youth in 24 towns were surveyed once a year for 3 years, and rates of tobacco use for those fined for PUP law violations were assessed. Of those who were given a ticket for a PUP law violation, 35 (39%) reported not smoking during year 1.

Drink specials and the intoxication levels of patrons exiting college bars.

Objectives: To determine whether drink specials independently increase patrons' risk of achieving a high level of intoxication upon exiting drinking establishments.

Methods: In a campus community, data were collected from exiting patrons (N=291) via sidewalk interviews and breath tests on 6 nights of 2 consecutive semesters.

Results: A multivariate model revealed that taking advantage of a drink special was associated with a fourfold increase in risk of achieving a BAC >or= 80 mg/dl.

Youth caught in violation of tobacco purchase, use, and possession laws: education versus fines.

Each day, thousands of children are caught for violation of tobacco purchase, use, and possession (PUP) laws. Little is known about their impact on violators; we do not know how the youth who are caught perceive these consequences or the effects they have on their tobacco use. Moreover, many communities are beginning to use brief tobacco education programs as a diversion from the normal processing of PUP law violators (i.

Youth tobacco sales-to-minors and possession-use-purchase laws: a public health controversy.

Tobacco use among youth remains one of our nation's most significant public health problems, and yet available evidence from prevention and cessation person-centered approaches has been mixed. Given these disappointing outcomes, some have recommended more public health approaches, and these include tobacco sales-to-minors and possession-use-purchase laws. While community members and police officials have endorsed these types of public health initiatives, many within the public health community have been either guarded or even oppositional to such approaches.

Monitoring and decreasing public smoking among youth.

This study examined the impact of tobacco possession laws on public smoking among youth. There were two intervention sites: a fast food restaurant and a shopping mall. Two control sites were also monitored for public smoking among youth.

Maintenance of community change: enforcing youth access to tobacco laws.

Youth access to tobacco remains a significant problem for this nation. Methods have been developed to reduce youth access to commercial outlets and these involve enforcement efforts of monitoring and fining merchant offenders. In the present study, over a three year period of time, readiness to participate in these types of enforcement programs were assessed in 11 communities.

Factors influencing middle and high schools' active parental consent return rates.

The authors examined factors influencing the return rates for attempting to collect active parental consent forms from 21,123 students in the 7th through 10th grades in 41 middle and high schools. Overall return rates from middle schools were higher than from high schools. Schools that offered high levels of staff support for collecting consent forms had higher return rates.

Assessing storefront tobacco advertising after the billboard ban.

This study examined storefront tobacco advertisements in 11 towns in Illinois from 1999 through 2001 to assess possible changes in these types of advertisements since the master tobacco settlement, which banned tobacco advertisements on billboards. Observers assessed the number of merchant- and industry-made tobacco storefront advertisements in Illinois stores and whether these advertisements were either brand- or price-focused. The relationship between the amount of tobacco advertisements and underage tobacco sales to minors was also explored.

The relation of retail tobacco availability to initiation and continued smoking.

Used an ecological analysis employing multilevel random-effects regression analyses to model Level 1 (individual and social) and Level 2 (environmental) correlates of smoking initiation and continued smoking among 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students. Data from 5,234 youth in 11 Midwestern communities were examined. Results indicate higher levels of retail tobacco availability (RTA) were associated with increased odds that a youth initiated smoking but not continued smoking.