Survey: Greater Cincinnati Lags Behind In Tobacco Control Efforts

Local health officials continue to work on decreasing the number of smokers in the region.

(Cincinnati, Oh.) – A new report shows that the Greater Cincinnati region lags behind the nation in tobacco control efforts.

The first-ever Greater Cincinnati Adult Tobacco Survey from Interact for Health found that 19 percent of adults – or 340,000 people – are current cigarette smokers in the Greater Cincinnati area.

That compares to 14 percent nationwide.

According to the survey, 12 percent of area adults said they currently use e-cigarettes, eight percent use cigars or cigarillos and five percent use smokeless tobacco.

“If we want to create a healthier community, we can’t become complacent about tobacco,” said O’dell Moreno Owens, MD, MPH, President and CEO of Interact for Health. “We need to implement tobacco control strategies that have been shown to work, including policies such as smoke-free workplace laws and tobacco 21, to reach out to communities with education about tobacco in culturally appropriate ways and to provide cessation support that is tailored to the individual’s needs. At Interact for Health, we have made reducing tobacco use one of our strategic priorities, investing up to $9 million over five years to protect our community from the harms of tobacco.”

The survey examined how culture impacts why people start smoking and why they continued. Of those surveyed, 80 percent of adults reported that smoking is common in their community. Fifty-eight percent said they have a close friend who uses tobacco, 49 percent of smokers have children living in the household, and 32 percent of smokers reported high levels of stress.

Interact for Health says tobacco control policies such as smoke-free workplace laws, flavoring restrictions, increasing the minimum age of sale to 21 and point of sale laws that restrict access are some of the strategies that could reduce the percentage of smokers in the region. 

A total of 2,300 randomly selected adults residing in a 22-county region in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana were interviewed between August 2018 and March 2019.

The full survey can be found at www.interactforhealth.org/about-tobacco-survey.