Tobacco Prevention and Education Program (TPEP)
The Nevada Public Health Foundation's TPEP program is in its second year and will further expand upon the findings and results of the first year. The TPEP consists of the Rural Nevada Anti-Tobacco Marketing Campaign funded by Fund for a Healthy Nevada for FY 09 and FY 10. The project covers all counties in Nevada except Washoe and Clark.
The goals are:
- Prevent the initiation of tobacco use among young people (middle and high school),
- Promote quitting tobacco use among young people, and
- Eliminate nonsmokers' exposure to secondhand smoke.
To accomplish these goals, a social norms marketing campaign will be implemented throughout rural Nevada through television, radio, billboards, press releases, etc. (Tobacco use = cigarettes and chew in this project)
Research shows individuals overestimate extent of peer tobacco use. For example, youth misperceive that the majority of their peers smoke when in fact only a small percentage smoke. 2007 Nevada Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) found that 13.6% of high school students smoked cigarettes one or more days in the past 30 days. The social norms approach uses local data (Nevada YRBS) to renforce positive messages that most youth don't smoke in order to change the misperception. Research shows that if we can change youths misperceptions of inaccurate tobacco use to ultimately know and believe that the majority of youth actually don't use tobacco, this will in turn reduce tobacco use rates. If youth think that the majority of their peers smoke cigarettes then they also believe that this is normal behavior (because everyone is doing it) and in turn are more likely to participate in that behavior. If we can correct these misperceptions, then we can change behavior. Correct misperceptions equate to positive behavior and/or environmental change of reduced/non-tobacco use.
A workshop will utilize rural youth and a professional marketer to develop a media them/message to promote the correct social norms for the FY 09-10 grant period and will also foster youth and media buy-in.
In order to determine if the media campaign was effective in reducing tobacco rates, a misperception survey will be completed by middle and high school students throughout Nevada. The misperception questions that have been developed will provide the data on if youth mispercetions have changed from before the mass media campaign to after the campaign.
If more information on the project is needed, please call (775) 884-0392.