Components in tobacco-free school policies-A coding tool for assessment

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Policy
• Tobacco Control

Background:

• Colleges and universities are increasingly implementing tobacco-free campus policies.
• Assessing the comprehensiveness and components of these policies is crucial for effective implementation and evaluation.
• Existing instruments may not fully capture the nuances of model tobacco-free campus policies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an instrument for examining tobacco-free campus policy components.
• To identify essential elements for comprehensive and model tobacco-free policies.
• To provide a tool for institutions to improve their tobacco-free campus policies.

Main Methods:

• Instrument development informed by literature review and expert interviews.
• Application of the instrument to a sample of 76 Missouri higher education institutions.
• Assessment of coder agreement (κ = .80) to ensure reliability.

Main Results:

• The instrument identified key policy components including population coverage, prohibited products, location restrictions, enforcement, and cessation support.
• Nineteen campuses had comprehensive tobacco-free policies, and five had comprehensive smoke-free policies (including e-cigarettes).
• No single policy encompassed all model components; 52 policies were non-comprehensive.

Conclusions:

• The developed instrument enables campuses to identify components of comprehensive and model tobacco-free policies.
• It assists officials in refining policy language for greater effectiveness.
• Future research can utilize this instrument to evaluate policy component impact on tobacco use outcomes.