This presentation is on the Tobacco Public Opinion Poll that was conducted last

December 2014.

My name is Steven Fiala and I am one of the tobacco research analysts in the Health

Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Section of the Oregon Public Health

Division.

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The objectives of today’s presentation include the following:

Describe the 2014 tobacco opinion poll (the logistics);

Provide an overview of opinion poll results; and

Offer opportunity for questions about opinion poll.

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But before we delve into the results, let’s talk a bit about the logistics of the opinion

poll.

This is supposed to be a data nerd.

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The purpose of the opinion poll is the assess public support for select tobacco

prevention policies.

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This iteration of the opinion poll was conducted last December (2014).

It was conducted among a sample of Oregon adults.

A sample of Oregon adults was selected from a list of registered Oregon voters.

This is a standard sampling practice for opinion polling.

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The opinion poll was administered through a phone call with selected respondents.

Some survey questions were asked of the entire sample, which included 500 adults.

To keep the length of the survey manageable and ensure participation, parts of the

survey were split between two groups of respondents. These split sample questions

were asked of 250 adults.

There is an associated margin or error depending on the sample size used for the

question.

The margin of error for questions asked of 500 adults is plus or minus 4.4%.

The margin of error for questions asked of 250 adults is plus or minus 6.2%

For example, if a particular policy receives 75% support from poll respondents, the

actual percent of support can range from about 69% to 81%. (This would be for a

question asked of 250 adults.)

The opinion poll was administered by DHM Research, a contractor with years of

experience conducting public opinion polls.

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Now let’s briefly review the topics covered on the opinion poll.

Topics on the opinion poll included:

Impressions of organizations like the Oregon Health Authority and the Tobacco

Industry;

Support for tobacco retail policies;

Support for tobacco-free places;

Support for cigarette tax increases;

Support for expansion of Oregon’s Indoor Clean Air Act; and

And public opinions of the tobacco industry.

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I wanted to take a brief moment to highlight that HPCDP, particularly the Surveillance

and Evaluation Team, is trying to ensure timely dissemination of the data collected at

the State.

We are hoping that more timely and routine sharing of the data we collect will in

translate to meaningful use of data by you all.

We are aiming to have more frequent presentations of the data we collect and hope

that you all see us as a data resources.

Now let’s review some of the opinion poll results.

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First, public impressions of organizations and entities.

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The question on the poll read as follows…

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Here are the results. The scale for the question ranged from strongly favor (in dark

green) to strongly oppose (in dark red).

The percentages at the end of each bar in the graph represent the percent of adults

who responded that they strongly or somewhat favor the organization or entity.

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I’d like to highlight the Oregon Tobacco Prevention & Education Program or TPEP.

TPEP is viewed favorably by about half of the general public. There is not a lot of

opposition, but quite a bit of don’t know responses.

The lack of awareness among the general public indicates that we may have work to

do about communicating the effect of the TPEP program on the health of Oregonians.

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And I’d also like to highlight the unfavorable impression that the public has of the

tobacco industry.

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And based on opinion polling also conducted in 2014 by DHM Research we can add a

few more organizations, including the Oregon Legislature and US Congress.

We see that the Oregon TPEP is viewed more favorably than the Oregon Legislature.

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But no one can compare with the popularity of the all-mighty Les Schwab at 87% of

support from the public.

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Now we are going to review results for questions related to support for tobacco retail

policies.

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Poll respondents were asked questions about support for a series of tobacco

prevention policies that can be implemented in the retail environment.

Each question introduced the concept of the policy and then asked “Do you favor or

oppose the policy? Strongly or somewhat?

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These are the tobacco retail policies that were supported by a majority of the

respondents.

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The policy that garnered the most public support was setting limits on how close

tobacco retailers can be to schools.

The policy with the second highest public support was tobacco retail licensure or

requiring stores selling tobacco to be licensed.

And although considered a more exploratory retail policy option, raising the minimum

legal sales age of tobacco to 21 years old had the third highest level of public support.

Nearly 70% or 7 out of 10 respondents supported these 3 policies.

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And these are the retail policies that had less than a majority of public support.

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Policies that prohibit stores from selling flavored tobacco and prohibiting the use of

tobacco price discounts, like coupons, are both promising.

As such, it is important to note that although not supported by a majority, both of

these policies were supported by about 2 in 5 adults.

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As a quick review, the top 3 retail policies with the highest public support included…

Setting limits on how close tobacco retailers can be to schools;

Requiring stores that sell tobacco to be licensed; and

Raising the age to buy tobacco to 21 years old.

The palm tree picture is not meant to make you sad, it is meant to highlight that

Hawaii County recently passed this policy.

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Next let’s review the results for questions about support for tobacco-free places.

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The question on the poll read as follows…

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These are the places that a majority of respondents supported going tobacco free.

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The 3 places with the highest level of support included the grounds of health clinics

and hospitals, outdoor seating areas at restaurants, and outside public facilities like

libraries and city halls.

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And these are the places with less than a majority of respondents in support.

Although these places did not receive majority support, it is important to recognize

that they were still supported by about 2 out of every 5 adults.

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Now let’s review results for questions related to tobacco prevention program funding

and increasing the cigarette tax in Oregon.

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The first question was related to state funds received from the Tobacco Master

Settlement Agreement or TMSA and what percentage of those funds should go to

tobacco prevention funding.

The question was worded as follows…

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Here we see the average percent of TMSA funds that Oregon adults think should go to

tobacco prevention.

This question was also asked in 2008 and 2010, so the results are displayed here over

time.

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Even though we have the seen the average amount of TMSA that should go to the

state tobacco prevention program decrease since 2008, the public still thinks that

more than half of Oregon’s TMSA money should go the fund tobacco prevention

programs.

Not the 2% that is currently being dedicated to tobacco prevention programs.

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The next set of results we are going to review are for questions related to increasing

Oregon’s cigarette tax.

The question was worded as follows…

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The responses were divided into those who responded with any tax increase and

those who responded with no tax increase.

Here we see the percentage of respondents who supported any tax increase.

This question was also asked in 2008 and 2010, so the results are displayed here over

time.

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Although we see that the percentage is lower than in 2008 and 2010, a majority

(nearly 6 out of 10) people support an increase in Oregon’s cigarette tax.

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Now we are looking at the percentage of people who supported a meaningful increase

in the cigarette tax.

I am defining meaningful as an increase of $1.00 or more.

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We see that about 1 out of 3 people support a cigarette tax increase of at least $1.00

or more.

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Next we are going to review results related to expanding Oregon’s Indoor Clean Air

Act, which went into effect January 1, 2009.

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The first question asked about support for the ICAA or Smokefree Workplace Law

using the following question…

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We see that the vast majority of people (nearly 9 out of 10) favor the law.

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Next we asked about a series of expansions to the Oregon ICAA using the following

question…

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We see that a majority of people (about 7 out of 10) support including marijuana

smoking in the ICAA.

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There was less support for including e-cigarettes in the ICAA although still a majority.

It is also important to note the higher proportion of respondents who indicated “Don’t

know” compared to the question about marijuana, indicating a lack of awareness on

the part of the public.

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And finally, respondents were asked about expanding the existing 10 foot rule in the

ICAA using the following question…

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We see that 7 out of 10 respondents were supportive of expanding the distance

beyond 10 feet.

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And finally we’ll review results related to public opinions of the tobacco industry.

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First, respondents were asked if they believe the tobacco industry advertises and

promotes tobacco to specific populations using the follow question…

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We see that the majority of respondents (nearly 6 out of 10) believe that the tobacco

industry deliberately advertises and promotes tobacco products to youth to get them

to use tobacco.

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Next we see that about 4 out of 10 believe that the tobacco industry deliberately

advertises and promotes tobacco products to residents of low-income neighborhoods

to get them to use tobacco.

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And finally we see that about one-third believe that the tobacco industry deliberately

advertises and promotes tobacco products to communities of color to get them to use

tobacco.

All of these populations have been historically targeted by the tobacco industry.

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The next question asked about how the tobacco industry is being treated these days

using the following question…

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We see that about 1 out of 3 people believe that people are too soft on the tobacco

industry.

It is also notable that 15% were not sure.

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And finally, respondents were asked about the honesty of tobacco companies using

the following question…

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And we see that vast majority of people (7 out of 10) believe that the tobacco industry

has been dishonest with the public about the dangers of tobacco use.

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I also wanted to take a moment to highlight a few respondent demographics that

affected support for tobacco prevention policies.

We found that a person was more likely to support tobacco prevention policies if:

The respondent was a woman;

The respondents had a higher educational attainment; and

If the respondent was of a higher socio-economic status (SES).

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DHM Research also did some initial analysis of the opinion poll results using more

complex statistics that look at which demographic characteristic is the main driver of

support and found that education was the main predictor of support for tobacco

prevention policies.

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We’ve reached the end of the presentation, but let’s take a moment to remember

some key points or take aways.

First, we saw that there is a majority of public support for numerous tobacco retail

policies, including tobacco retail licensure.

We also saw a majority of public support for tobacco-free health care facilities and

outdoor seating areas at restaurants.

And we also saw that 1 out of every 3 Oregon adults supports a meaningful cigarette

tax increase of $1.00 or more.

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And we also just saw that those who are women, of higher educational attainment

and higher SES are more likely to support the tobacco prevention policies we

reviewed.

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Any questions?

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Now let’s talk next steps for the opinion poll data.

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First, I want mention that this was just a portion of a larger report. An 88-page report

to be exact.

We didn’t want to throw it all at you today…

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But that’s why we’re here (we are data nerds).

However, if you have additional questions about the report or the results shared today

please let us know.

After this presentation, we are going to send a 5-page summary (fact sheet) of the

results to you all.

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There will also be other opportunities for TPEP grantees to review these data in the

near future.

In addition to today’s webinar…

We will discuss opinion poll results on the May 6-7 required TPEP webinar focusing on

the release of new data, including tobacco county fact sheets and aggregate tobacco

retail assessment results.

We will incorporate opinion poll data into the in-person TPEP training on May 20th in

Bend.

We will also respond to the need for more information about the opinion poll and may

be open to additional presentations of the data to interested audiences.

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Thanks for listening.

Here is my contact information if you have any follow-up questions about the poll

results.

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And here’s a funny comic about polling.

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