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Activity Number:
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400
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Type:
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Contributed
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Date/Time:
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Thursday, August 15, 2002 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
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Sponsor:
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Section on Health Policy Statistics*
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| Abstract - #301718 |
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Title:
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Reducing Dependence on Tobacco: A Sensitivity Analysis
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Author(s):
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Daniel Zaccaro*+ and David Altman
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Affiliation(s):
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Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Wake Forest University School of Medicine
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Address:
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Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157-1063, USA
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Keywords:
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Randomized; ; Public Health ; Communities; ; Farmers;
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Abstract:
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The political influence of tobacco growers in the United States continues to hamper public policy on tobacco and health. The Tobacco Farmers and Tobacco Communities project tested an intervention to inform North Carolina tobacco growers who want to diversify their on-farm and off-farm base and become less dependent on tobacco. Fourteen tobacco growing counties in North Carolina were randomized to intervention (e.g., crop demonstration projects) or control groups. Three waves of data collection on tobacco growers have been completed (1997, 1999, 2001). The percent of farmers' gross family income derived from tobacco was the main outcome. Several components of this outcome calculation were estimated from agricultural and governmental sources. To test the intervention time effect on tobacco dependence, sensitivity analyses were conducted to determine what effect variation in these components would have on the interaction effect. Variation in pounds/acre of tobacco grown exhibited strong effects on the interaction significance, independent of sample size. It is concluded that this analysis strategy is sensitive to estimates used in the calculations of tobacco dependence.
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