With grants from recent Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation (OTPF), the Northwest Ohio Strategic Alliance for Tobacco Control is funding a network of diverse organizations all committed to one goal: significantly reducing tobacco use in Northwest Ohio.

The Alliance channels grant funds to “sub-grantees” who coordinate evidence-based, community-level planning, partnership and implementation of comprehensive tobacco control programs such as:
Life Skills Training (LST)
Word of Mouth (WOM)
Adult Cessation Programs
Tobacco-Free School Policy Development
Tobacco-Free Worksite Policy Development
stand Team

Listed below are programs available in Northwest Ohio:

Life Skills Training (LST): Developed by Dr. Gilbert Botvin in 1986, LST is designed to prevent youth tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. Over 12 research studies confirm that LST had a significant impact on reducing cigarette, marijuana, and alcohol use after three years for those middle school students whose teachers taught at least 60% of the curriculum. A six-year follow-up study indicates that the effects of LST lasted until the end of 12th grade.
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Word of Mouth (WOM): Targeting students in grades 4-6, the American Lung Association® of Ohio and the Cleveland Clinic Health System developed WOM in 2000. The interactive curriculum presents tobacco use and nicotine addiction knowledge, decision-making, goal setting, and basic refusal skills with opportunities to roleplay. WOM contains components similar to those in well-documented curriculum in a shorter time frame. A five-year evaluation of this program is planned which is in its first stages of development. Preliminary findings indicate that WOM is effective in strengthening students intentions not to initiate tobacco use.
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Stay Tobacco-Free Athlete Mentor Program (STAMP): STAMP is a program from the American Cancer Society. Tobacco-free high school students are trained to deliver a four-part tobacco prevention program to middle school students, ages 10-12. The purpose of STAMP is to increase the number of young people remaining tobacco-free, provide leadership and service opportunities for the student-athlete mentors, and to help mentors remain tobacco-free.
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Teens Against Tobacco Use™ (TATU): In 1996, American Lung Association® (ALA) of Ohio teamed up with American Heart Association (AHA) and American Cancer Society (ACS) to develop this program. The goal of TATU is to help teens remain tobacco-free by having adults train teens to give 4th-6th graders classroom presentations about tobacco and being tobacco-free community advocates. The ALA evaluation strategy includes process, outcome, and impact components. Pre- and post-test evaluations measure tobacco use knowledge and attitudes of teen and elementary school participants. This program was field researched by the Humana Foundation, which reported a significant difference in pre- and post-test means for elementary school participants. The ALA is establishing a national database and is committed to long-term analysis.
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Tobacco Awareness Program (TAP) and Tobacco Education Group (TEG): TAP is a voluntary smoking cessation program and TEG is an involuntary (suspended students) cessation program based on Dr. J. O. Prochaska and Dr. C. C. DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model/Stages of Change research. TAP and TEG incorporate all seven CDC Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction. TAP and TEG have been evaluated by national and regional surveys involving 1,600 students and an independent evaluation by St. Luke’s Hospital of Toledo, Ohio. Evaluation results consistently show significant changes in quitting behaviors and reduction in daily cigarette use for program participants.
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Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) and Alternative to Suspension (ATS): The American Lung Association®’s N-O-T is a voluntary smoking cessation program for youth. ATS is an involuntary teen youth cessation effort. Both programs address decision-making, stress reduction, effective communication skills, and setting realistic and attainable goals for change. The ATS program encourages suspended students to consider cessation, healthy alternatives to smoking, and how to keep from smoking at school. Two evaluation/pilot programs (1998-99) demonstrated an increased cessation rate for program participants. N-O-T is currently the subject of an outside evaluation including the use of biochemical documentation of cessation and six-month follow-up data.
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Five A's Prenatal Smoking Cessation Program: The Alliance’s strategy to reduce tobacco use by pregnant women is centered on implementing region-wide the best practice guidelines released in 1996 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHCPR) and accepted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The guidelines state that programs that are most effective for light to moderate smokers use a brief cessation counseling session of 5-15 minutes, delivered by a trained provider, with the provision of pregnancy-specific, self-help materials. This approach has increased cessation rates by a minimum of 30% and is as effective with ethnic minority women, notably African-American women, as with White women.

The research maintains that heavy smokers are unlikely to benefit from this approach without some type of pharmacological intervention. Alliance members implementing interventions to reduce tobacco use during pregnancy (including pharmacological intervention when needed) will base their program on the Brief Interventions Model’s 5A’s (ask, advise, assess, assist, and arrange) as recommended by the AHCPR. Prenatal smoking cessation programs have been evaluated by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in cooperation with the Department of Health and Human Services and CDC.
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