title: The impact of school tobacco policies on student smoking in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia.
abstract: This paper measures tobacco policies in statewide representative samples of secondary and mixed schools in Victoria, Australia and Washington, US (N = 3,466 students from 285 schools) and tests their association with student smoking. Results from confounder-adjusted random effects (multi-level) regression models revealed that the odds of student perception of peer smoking on school grounds are decreased in schools that have strict enforcement of policy (odds ratio (OR) = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.25 to 0.82; p = 0.009). There was no clear evidence in this study that a comprehensive smoking ban, harsh penalties, remedial penalties, harm minimization policy or abstinence policy impact on any of the smoking outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, 2 Gatehouse Street, Parkville, Vic. 3052, Australia. tracy.evanswhipp@mcri.edu.au
authors.forename: Tracy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Evans-Whipp
authors.forename: Lyndal
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bond
authors.forename: Obioha C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Ukoumunne
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Toumbourou
authors.forename: Richard F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Catalano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016134:Organizational Policy; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012923:Social Class; D013334:Students; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology; D014861:Washington / Q000453:epidemiology; D014026:Nicotiana