Surveillance recommendations for developing effective tobacco prevention and control interventions for low-SES...

On October 6 and 7, 2005, a diverse panel of experts was invited to Atlanta, Georgia by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Smoking and Health to discuss, explore, and share their ideas on how to identify and subsequently plan effective interventions with low socioeconomic status populations in regard to tobacco prevention and control. The invited participants had expertise in three areas: surveillance and evaluation, program planning, and health communications. This article summarizes the methods, processes, discussions, and recommendations that emerged from the surveillance and evaluation group. Current surveillance systems have had success at identifying high-risk populations, but usually at the national or state level. Interventions occur at the local level, and current data are woefully inadequate in providing direction as far as programming planning. It is recommended that an eight-step approach be used for surveillance and monitoring that includes qualitative data collection and participatory planning models.