Dataset Information

Tobacco Pricing in Military Stores: Views of Military Policy Leaders.

ABSTRACT: Higher tobacco taxes reduce tobacco use. On military installations, cigarettes and other tobacco products are sold tax-free, keeping prices artificially low. Pricing regulations in the military specify that tobacco should be within 5% of the local most competitive price, but prices still average almost 13% lower than those at local Walmarts.To gain insight into policy leaders' ideas and positions on military tobacco pricing, we interviewed members of the Department of Defense (DoD) Addictive Substances Misuse Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on Tobacco about tobacco pricing policies (n = 12).Participants frequently lacked specific knowledge of details of military pricing policy, and the impact higher prices might have on military tobacco use. Most participants thought tobacco should not be sold at military stores, but many also felt that this policy change was unlikely due to tobacco industry pressure, and DoD reliance on tobacco profits to support Morale, Welfare, and Recreation funds.Achieving a tobacco-free military will require changing pricing policy, but this study suggests that for effective implementation, military leadership must also understand and articulate more clearly the rationale for doing so.Previous work has found that adherence to military tobacco pricing policy is inconsistent at best. This study suggests that lack of knowledge about the policy and conflicting pressures resulting from the funding stream tobacco sales represent extend to high level military policy leaders. Without clearer information and direction, these leaders are unlikely to be able to establish and implement better tobacco pricing policy.

SUBMITTER: Smith EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5016848 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tobacco Pricing in Military Stores: Views of Military Policy Leaders.

Smith Elizabeth A EA Jahnke Sara A SA Poston Walker S C WS Malone Ruth E RE Haddock Christopher K CK

Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco 20160504 10

<h4>Introduction</h4>Higher tobacco taxes reduce tobacco use. On military installations, cigarettes and other tobacco products are sold tax-free, keeping prices artificially low. Pricing regulations in the military specify that tobacco should be within 5% of the local most competitive price, but prices still average almost 13% lower than those at local Walmarts.<h4>Methods</h4>To gain insight into policy leaders' ideas and positions on military tobacco pricing, we interviewed members of the Depa ...[more]

PMID: 27146639

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Project description:BackgroundTobacco-related content on social media is generated and propagated by opinion leaders on the Web who disseminate messages to others in their network, including followers, who then continue to spread the information. Opinion leaders can exert powerful influences on their followers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; yet, little is known about the demographic characteristics and tobacco use behavior of tobacco opinion leaders on the Web and their followers, compared with general Twitter users.ObjectiveIn this study, we hypothesized that opinion leaders use more tobacco products and have higher nicotine dependence than the other 2 groups (eg, followers and general Twitter users) and that followers-those who spread messages by opinion leaders-would more likely be in demographic groups that are vulnerable to tobacco marketing influence (eg, young adults and lower educational attainment).MethodsWe constructed the social networks of people who tweet about tobacco and categorized them using a combination of social network and Twitter metrics. To understand the characteristics of tobacco opinion leaders and their followers, we conducted a survey of tobacco opinion leaders, their followers, and general Twitter users. The sample included 347 opinion leaders, 567 followers, and 519 general users. The opinion leaders had a median of 1000 followers, whereas followers and general users had fewer than 600 followers.ResultsOpinion leaders were more likely than their followers to report past month use of tobacco products; followers, in turn, were more likely to report past month use of these products than general Twitter users. The followers appeared to be an especially vulnerable group; they tended to be younger (mean age 22.4 years) and have lower education compared with the opinion leaders and general users.ConclusionsFollowers of Twitter tobacco opinion leaders are a vulnerable group that might benefit from antitobacco education to counter the protobacco communications they see on social media.

Dataset Information

Tobacco Pricing in Military Stores: Views of Military Policy Leaders.

Publications

Tobacco Pricing in Military Stores: Views of Military Policy Leaders.

Similar Datasets

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