Assessing How a Tobacco-free Campus Leads to Attitude Change and Support Among Students, Faculty, and Staff

Introduction: Universities are increasingly considering tobacco-free campus policies to help promote a healthy learning and working environment. We assessed attitudes of students, faculty, and staff, before and after the implementation of a tobacco-free campus policy at a large, urban university. We also examined individual factors associated with these attitudes.

Methods: An independent panel design method was used to assess students, faculty and staff about their tobacco product use, attitudes towards tobacco policies, and support for cigarette and e-cigarette bans 3 months before and 7 months after a university-wide policy change to ban tobacco and e-cigarettes on campus. Survey participants before the policy change included 636 students and 1356 faculty/ staff. Survey participants after the policy change included 1000 students and 574 faculty/staff. We conducted separate multiple linear and logistic regression models for students and faculty/staff.

Results: Attitudes towards tobacco-free campus policies did not improve for students, but did for faculty/staff. Support for bans of cigarettes and e-cigarettes on campus increased following the policy change among both students and faculty/staff. Students were more willing to ask their friends to stop vaping post-policy, but did not differ in their willingness to ask friends to stop smoking. Among the individual factors considered, gender and use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes were predictive of attitudes among both students and faculty/staff. Women were more likely to support and have more positive attitudes towards bans, while current tobacco product users were less likely to support tobacco product bans and have less positive attitudes towards tobacco policies.

Conclusions: Attitudes towards tobacco-free campus policies changed pre- to postpolicy among faculty/staff, but not among students. However, both students and faculty/staff were more supportive of tobacco product bans following the policy change. Individual factors associated with support and attitudes were identified.