Evaluation of the Center for Tobacco Products Public Education Campaigns, Communication Programs and Channels

Updated 01/08/2021. Please see the additional revised attachment which amends Attachment G_RFP Question Submittal Form.

Tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. Additionally, for every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness. The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) was established by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act, TCA) and tasked with developing and implementing effective regulatory strategies for reducing the enormous public health burden of tobacco products. Such strategies include public education activities to inform a variety of audiences about tobacco products and their regulation. Given that nine out of ten adult people who smoke started smoking before the age of 18, public education activities place a special emphasis on preventing and reducing tobacco use among young people in the United States. Using the best available science, CTP is executing a comprehensive mix of health communication and education activities designed to discourage tobacco use. Health communication activities, such as public education campaigns are known to shape tobacco-related knowledge, opinions, attitudes, and behaviors among individuals and within communities (National Cancer Institute, 2008).

CTP seeks to conduct timely evaluations of its health communication and education activities on reducing tobacco-related death and disease to measure its impact and effectiveness. These activities will include pre-testing of evaluation methodologies to assess effectiveness of new evaluation approaches, process evaluations to assess whether activities were conducted as planned, and outcome evaluations to assess how well program activities achieved the intended goals and objectives. Health communication outcome evaluation measures will include gauging target audience exposure to, awareness of, and receptivity to messages in relation to resultant changes in tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Evaluation of CTP's education activities, particularly campaigns, is complicated by the multiple factors that influence tobacco initiation, use, and cessation behaviors. These include, but are not limited to, tobacco policies, regulatory enforcement, other tobacco prevention education programs, community tobacco prevention efforts, media exposure, and socioeconomic and demographic factors. CTP evaluation activities are further complicated by the evolving tobacco product landscape, and the emergence of new products has implications for campaign message strategies and target audience. Also, measuring exposure to specific campaigns is increasingly complicated, particularly given the increased reliance on digital media for reaching campaign target audiences. Self-reported exposure to media can be unreliable, and simultaneous exposure to other media messages (including both tobacco industry messages and other tobacco prevention messaging) is unavoidable. CTP therefore requires rigorous scientific evaluations of its tobacco-related public education activities and programs that account for these complex factors. Successful evaluation should include quantitative and qualitative methodologies that measure progress toward successful outcomes, identify the need for mid-course adjustments to improve effectiveness, and assess long-term public health impact.

Tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. Additionally, for every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness. The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) was established by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act, TCA) and tasked with developing and implementing effective regulatory strategies for reducing the enormous public health burden of tobacco products. Such strategies include public education activities to inform a variety of audiences about tobacco products and their regulation. Given that nine out of ten adult people who smoke started smoking before the age of 18, public education activities place a special emphasis on preventing and reducing tobacco use among young people in the United States. Using the best available science, CTP is executing a comprehensive mix of health communication and education activities designed to discourage tobacco use. Health communication activities, such as public education campaigns are known to shape tobacco-related knowledge, opinions, attitudes, and behaviors among individuals and within communities (National Cancer Institute, 2008).

CTP seeks to conduct timely evaluations of its health communication and education activities on reducing tobacco-related death and disease to measure its impact and effectiveness. These activities will include pre-testing of evaluation methodologies to assess effectiveness of new evaluation approaches, process evaluations to assess whether activities were conducted as planned, and outcome evaluations to assess how well program activities achieved the intended goals and objectives. Health communication outcome evaluation measures will include gauging target audience exposure to, awareness of, and receptivity to messages in relation to resultant changes in tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Evaluation of CTP's education activities, particularly campaigns, is complicated by the multiple factors that influence tobacco initiation, use, and cessation behaviors. These include, but are not limited to, tobacco policies, regulatory enforcement, other tobacco prevention education programs, community tobacco prevention efforts, media exposure, and socioeconomic and demographic factors. CTP evaluation activities are further complicated by the evolving tobacco product landscape, and the emergence of new products has implications for campaign message strategies and target audience. Also, measuring exposure to specific campaigns is increasingly complicated, particularly given the increased reliance on digital media for reaching campaign target audiences. Self-reported exposure to media can be unreliable, and simultaneous exposure to other media messages (including both tobacco industry messages and other tobacco prevention messaging) is unavoidable. CTP therefore requires rigorous scientific evaluations of its tobacco-related public education activities and programs that account for these complex factors. Successful evaluation should include quantitative and qualitative methodologies that measure progress toward successful outcomes, identify the need for mid-course adjustments to improve effectiveness, and assess long-term public health impact.