Using Stratification Trends to Keep Tobacco Products Out of the Hands of Minors

• Activity Number: 484
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Victoria McNerney*+ and Christopher Patrick Cummiskey and Karol Krotki
• Companies: RTI International and RTI International and RTI International
• Keywords: reduce standard error ; stratification trends ; stratified sample ; optimal allocation

Abstract

The Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-321) included an amendment (section 1926) requiring States to enact and enforce laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors. States must conduct "annual, random, unannounced inspections" of tobacco retailers. Currently, 39 States use stratified random sampling to select tobacco retailers for inspection. We will identify States that may be able to reduce their standard errors through optimal allocation methods. We will also identify the strata within each State that would benefit most from increased enforcement efforts by examining stratum level retailer violation rates and standard errors, measuring the stability of any stratum effects over ten years of State data. Finally, we will identify any stratum characteristics that are related to the retail violation rate across all States.