Effect of local youth-access regulations on progression to established smoking among youths in Massachusetts.
OBJECTIVE
To test whether community-level restrictions on youth access to tobacco (including both ordinances and enforcement) are associated with less smoking initiation or less progression to established smoking among adolescents.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study of a random sample of adolescents in Massachusetts whose smoking status was assessed by telephone interviews at baseline and 2-year follow-up, and linked to a state-wide database of town-level youth-access ordinances and enforcement practices.


METHODS
A random sample of 2623 adolescents aged 12-17 years who lived in 295 towns in Massachusetts in 2001-2 and were followed in 2003-4.


METHODS
The relationship between the strength of local youth access restrictions (including both ordinances and level of enforcement) and (1) never-smokers' smoking initiation rates and (2) experimenters' rate of progression to established smoking was tested in a multilevel analysis that accounted for town-level clustering and adjusted for potential individual, household and town-level confounders.


RESULTS
Over 2 years, 21% of 1986 never-smokers initiated smoking and 25% of 518 experimenters became established smokers. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for smoking initiation was 0.89 (95% CI 0.61 to 1.31) for strong versus weak youth-access policies and 0.93 (95% CI 0.67 to 1.29) for medium versus weak policies. The adjusted OR for progression to established smoking among adolescents who had experimented with smoking was 0.79 (95% CI 0.45 to 1.39) for strong versus weak local smoking restrictions and 0.85 (95% CI 0.50 to 1.45) for medium versus weak restrictions.


CONCLUSIONS
This prospective cohort study found no association between community-level youth-access restrictions and adolescents' rate of smoking initiation or progression to established smoking over 2 years.
Thomson
Carey Conley
CC
Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Hamilton
William L
WL
Siegel
Michael B
MB
Biener
Lois
L
Rigotti
Nancy A
NA
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012926:Social Control, Formal