The History of Ohio Tobacco Research & Evaluation Center

In 1998, along with 45 other states, Ohio negotiated a Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) designed to correct past and future injuries caused by tobacco, giving each state the chance to start reversing the devastation caused by tobacco use. In February 2000, the Ohio General Assembly passed comprehensive legislation allocating the money Ohio receives as stated in the MSA. And in March 2000, Governor Bob Taft signed Senate Bill 192, which created the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation (OTPF) and several other trust funds.

OTPF is charged with reducing tobacco use among Ohioans, with an emphasis on youth, minority and regional populations, pregnant women and others who may be disproportionately affected by the use of tobacco. OTPF programs include the distribution of community grants; Ohio's tobacco use counter-marketing campaign (STAND), and the free Ohio Tobacco Quit Line (1-800-QUIT-NOW). OTPF has been funding tobacco prevention, cessation, and control programs across Ohio since 2002. OTPF bases its grant programs on the CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. The components of a comprehensive tobacco control program include: community programs, chronic disease programs, school programs, enforcement of existing policies, statewide programs, counter-marketing, cessation programs, surveillance and evaluation, and administration and management. OTPF's 50 grantees employ more than 200 highly-trained Ohioans and provide services in the majority of Ohio’s 88 counties. The purpose of these grants is to help Ohio's communities execute evidence-based programs and build tobacco control infrastructures at the local level.

In July 2006, the Center for Health Promotion Research, a research and evaluation center in the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics was awarded a four-year contract from the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation (OTPF) to establish the Ohio Tobacco Research and Evaluation Center (OTREC). OTREC’s primary responsibility is to develop a statewide evaluation for OTPF’s $12-million community grants program. OTREC serves as a standardized and centralized data collection system. Previously, there were no standardized data collection tools and protocols, and subsequently no data reflecting statewide efforts. OTREC developed innovative standardized evaluation tools and prescriptive protocols to be used by all OTPF Community Grantees. To aid in data management, OTREC created OTREC-DM, an interactive, online data collection management tool which allows agencies to track the data collection tools through initiation, completion and return. OTREC also standardized data entry with Teleform, an optical character recognition software package. Standardized forms were developed to be faxed back to OTREC through a dedicated phone line and entered electronically by Teleform. OTREC submits data reports to G-Wiz, an on-line grants management system used by all grantees. As the 50 community grantees are located all across the state, OTREC was focused on establishing clear methods of communication. To facilitate this, OTREC maintains a website where all evaluation tools are posted, a monthly newsletter for all grantees, and OTREC staff is available at all OTPF events should grantees have any questions. As a result of the standardization of a statewide evaluation effort, OTREC is able to produce data reports reflective of the grantees efforts toward tobacco control and prevention across the state.

In addition to evaluation, OTREC also creates resources and tools for building local capacity in program evaluation. Further, OTREC analyzes trends in regional and statewide youth and adult tobacco surveillance data, as well as changes in local clean indoor air policies. Finally, OTREC produces two annual reports – the Ohio Adult Tobacco Survey Report and the Ohio Tobacco Key Indicator Report.