Passing a smoke-free law in a pro-tobacco culture: a multiple streams approach.

This article describes a case study of the policy development and political decision-making process involved in the enactment of Lexington, Kentucky's smoke-free law. The multiple streams framework is used to analyze the development of the law in a seemingly unlikely and challenging political environment. Proponents developed a dissemination research plan targeted at policy makers and the public to demonstrate the need for a comprehensive law.

A controlled trial of a Quit and Win contest.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of a state-of-the-art Quit and Win contest on tobacco quit rates at 3, 6, and 12 months after the 30-day quit period.

Design: Quasi-experimental with a volunteer sample of 494 Quit and Win contest registrants (treatment group) and 512 randomly selected tobacco users not exposed to the promotional media campaign (control group). Intervention included a 30-day quit period to be eligible for large cash prizes; provider advice via weekly mailings; online and telephone quit assistance; media campaign; and community support.

Effectiveness of a quit and win contest with a low-income population.

Background: In a two-group quasi-experimental study, we evaluated the impact of a quit and win contest on quitting among low-income tobacco users and identified contest elements used by successful quitters. Low-income tobacco users have been largely untouched by tobacco cessation approaches.

Methods: A volunteer sample of 248 low-income tobacco users were recruited from quit and win contest registrants (treatment group).