Award Date

May 2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

Public Health

First Committee Member

Timothy Grigsby

Second Committee Member

Nicole DeVille

Third Committee Member

Courtney Coughenour

Fourth Committee Member

Maxim Gakh

Fifth Committee Member

William Sousa

Number of Pages

81

Abstract

Despite the known harmful effects of smoking and secondhand smoke, tobacco-related disease, disability, and death continue to plague the United Stated and contribute to more than 480,000 individuals dying prematurely every year. Comprehensive smoke-free and tobacco free policies strive to prohibit the use of both traditional forms of tobacco (cigarettes, cigars) and smokeless forms of tobacco (vapes). The goal of this project was to examine the impact a tobacco control policy has on prevalence rates of use and knowledge regarding said policy among faculty, staff, and students. In the Fall of 2022, UNLV adopted a comprehensive tobaccofree and smoke-free policy (TFCP). Cross-sectional surveys were distributed to the UNLV community (students, faculty, and staff) in Spring 2022 (pre-implementation) and Fall 2022 (post-implementation) to gauge support for TFCP and examine rates of tobacco and nicotine product use on campus. Prevalence rates were higher for tobacco products at postimplementation among students, faculty, and staff at 28%, and 25% to 37% compared to pre- implementation rates of 10%, 7%, and 12%, respectively. Additionally, higher prevalence rates were observed in nicotine product use with students at post-implementation from 17% to 37%, faculty from 6% to 20% and staff from 7% to 36%. Support for policy was higher preimplementation among students (m = 3.8, SD = 1.1; m = 3.4, SD = 1.3), faculty (m = 3.8, SD = 1.2; m = 3.4, SD = 1.3), and staff (m = 3.5, SD = 1.3; m =3.3, SD 1.3). Policy perceptions and tobacco/nicotine product use varied by sociodemographic characteristics of students, faculty, and staff. Despite observing higher prevalence rates post-implementation this study has contributed to understanding gaps in the literature such as how these policies affect different subgroups of college subpopulations (e.g., 1st generation students and sexual and gender minorities). Identifying predictors for support of college campus TFCP can help to inform future research on impacts of policy implementation.

Disciplines

Public Health

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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