Abstract
Background Tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable morbidity and premature mortality. In December 2019, the federal age of sale for tobacco products increased from age 18 to age 21. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of federal Tobacco 21 policies in Pitt County, North Carolina, by conducting multiple purchase attempts for cigarettes. methods Stores in Pitt County that sold cigarettes were randomly sampled and visited by up to six different underage buyers (aged 18–20 years) who attempted to buy cigarettes from January to March 2022. Buyers made a total of 217 cigarette purchase attempts from 49 Pitt County retailers. Analyses were conducted using SPSS Complex Samples (v.28/Macintosh) to estimate retailer prevalence of requesting identification (ID) and selling to underage buyers across multiple purchase attempts. results On average, retailers failed to request ID in 15.4% of purchase attempts (95% CI; 9.4%–21.3%) and sold to an underage buyer 34.2% of the time (95% CI; 27.0%–41.4%). Additionally, 75.5% (95% CI; 63.4%–84.6%) of retailers sold to an underage buyer at least once. limitations This study is limited to a single county in North Carolina and to underage buyers aged 18 to 20 years. conclusions There is widespread noncompliance with federal age-of-sale policies for tobacco products in Pitt County, North Carolina. State enforcement is warranted, and North Carolina’s youth access law should be amended to match the federal age of sale. Changes to the law should allow research involving underage purchases.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 210-214 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | North Carolina Medical Journal |
| Volume | 85 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine and The Duke Endowment. All rights reserved.
Funding
The authors would like to thank their stellar team of data collectors for their work on this project. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R01CA231139 and P30CA225520. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Amanda Y. Kong was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (P30CA225520) and the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET R23-02). The funders had no role in any aspect of the study design, data analysis and interpretation, writing of the manuscript, or decision to publish. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on February 3, 2023. The authors would like to thank their stellar team of data collectors for their work on this project. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R01CA231139 and P30CA225520. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Amanda Y. Kong was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (P30CA225520) and the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET R23-02). The funders had no role in any aspect of the study design, data analysis and interpretation, writing of the manuscript, or decision to publish. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on February 3, 2023.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Childhood Cancer Registry – National Cancer Institute | |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | R01CA231139, P30CA225520 |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | |
| Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust | TSET R23-02 |
| Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust |
Keywords
- Amanda Y. Kong
- Cristine D. Delnevo
- federal policy
- Joseph G. L. Lee
- Judy van de Venne
- Mahdi Sesay
- Mary Hrywna
- Shyanika W. Rose
- smoking
- smoking cessation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine
