Tapping Into Multiple Data "Springs" to Strengthen Policy Streams: A Guide to the Types of Data Needed to Formulate Local Retail Tobacco Control Policy

Preventing and addressing youth vaping in British Columbia, Canada: Evidence from triangulation of a scoping review of vaping policy and qualitative interviews with school-aged youth

Objectives

Vaping remains a widespread and ongoing epidemic among youth, with research demonstrating that well-designed policies can play a critical role in curbing this growing issue.

Methods

The present study provides a Canadian case-study examination of vaping policy by triangulating a scoping review of federal (Canada, n = 3), provincial (British Columbia, n = 4), and regional (Okanagan, n = 26) policies (N = 33) from 2000 to 2024 with qualitative interviews with secondary school students aged 12 to 18 (N = 25). The scoping review, conducted in 2020 and updated in 2024, followed the Arksey and O'Malley framework and incorporated guidelines from PRISMA to ensure comprehensive identification of relevant policies across government, health, and educational domains. The interviews, conducted in 2020 and 2021 in the Okanagan region of British Columbia, were analyzed using NVivo software through conventional content analysis, an inductive approach where two coders collaboratively identified categories and sub-categories from participant responses using a finalized codebook.

Results

The policy review identified gaps in comprehensiveness, public accessibility, and enforcement, particularly at regional levels, where policies often lack comprehensiveness and fail to address vaping-specific challenges. Interview findings revealed youth perceptions of school policies as poorly implemented, reactive, and overly punitive, highlighting the need for proactive, educational approaches to address vaping behaviors.

Conclusions

Findings emphasize the importance of clear, accessible, and targeted policies that address possession, distribution, and marketing while involving youth, educators, and parents in awareness and prevention efforts. This case study provides insights applicable to other jurisdictions, offering a framework for designing dynamic, equitable, and effective vaping policies internationally.

Associations between disparities in tobacco retailer density and disparities in tobacco use

Research has separately established that there are disparities in tobacco use, that greater tobacco retailer density (TRD) is positively associated with tobacco use, and that TRD is greater in high poverty and high racial/ethnic minority neighborhoods. Connecting these topics, this study examined the association between disparities in TRD and disparities in the prevalence of tobacco use among adults and youth. We obtained Ohio data on tobacco use from two statewide adult surveys and two sub-state regional youth surveys (2017-2019). Licensed tobacco retailers in Ohio were geocoded within census tracts. Disparity in TRD within regions across the state was defined as the ratio of TRD in high vs. low poverty (and in high vs. low racial/ethnic minority) census tracts per region. Disparity in cigarette smoking (adults) and any tobacco use (youth) was defined as the ratio of use prevalence among socioeconomically disadvantaged vs. non-disadvantaged (and racial/ethnic minority vs. non-minority) individuals. We estimated Pearson correlation coefficients to assess the linear relationship between the TRD disparity ratios and tobacco use disparity ratios. Poverty-based and race/ethnicity-based TRD disparities were positively associated with smoking disparities among adults. Negative associations between TRD disparities and tobacco use disparities were found among youth. To our knowledge, this is the first analysis directly linking TRD disparities and tobacco use disparities. Different adult and youth findings may be due to trends by age and product preferences. For adults in particular, this analysis suggests a detrimental effect of the tobacco retail environment on disadvantaged populations.

Local and State Policy Action Taken in the United States to Address the Emergence of E-Cigarettes and Vaping: A Scoping Review of Literature

INTRODUCTION

In response to rising rates of youth vaping and e-cigarette use, states and localities in the United States have adopted various tobacco control policies and have extended their utility to these emerging products. However, the extent to which these policies have been evaluated for their impact on youth use is unknown.

METHOD

Two databases (PubMed, Google Scholar) were searched for English language peer-reviewed articles pertaining to electronic cigarette policy evaluation between 2009 and 2020. Primary articles of interest were journal articles that evaluated an e-cigarette policy. Secondary articles of interest were journal articles that identified any e-cigarette policy action without a formal evaluation component, those that evaluated tobacco policy, or those that described e-cigarette behaviors and trends. Tertiary articles included gray literature that provided context for e-cigarette trends and additional policy identification.

RESULTS

The final sample consisted of 12 relevant articles with an e-cigarette policy evaluation component and 62 relevant articles without such component, and 19 gray literature sources. Findings were synthesized based on policy type: product classification, age restrictions, smoke-free policies, flavor bans, sales restrictions, taxation, packaging, and advertising.

CONCLUSION

Policies that address access and use of e-cigarettes are common on the federal, state, and local level, are mostly reactionary, and mimic tobacco control efforts. Few policies have been formally evaluated for their effectiveness in reducing or preventing youth vaping. Strengthening the evidence base should be a priority for researchers going forward, given the potential of these policies to intervene on social and environmental conditions that affect youth initiation and uptake.