Catalog of Tobacco Control and Communication Survey Items

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Understanding the changing landscape of both tobacco products and the related communication environment is critical to prevent tobacco use and develop effective cessation programs. Key resources to help with this understanding are large-scale, national, publicly available surveys that measure both tobacco use and tobacco communication-related factors. These secondary data sets allow for timely analysis of emerging tobacco-related communication questions by taking advantage of existing data.

Data Resources

Researchers consolidated tobacco-related communication survey items from the following large-scale, national, public-use data sets with a wide variety of tobacco control measures:

  • TUS-CPS – Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey
  • BRFSS – Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
  • NHANES – National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
  • NHIS – National Health Interview Survey
  • NYTS – National Youth Tobacco Survey
  • YRBSS – Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
  • HINTS – Health Information National Trends Survey
  • MTF – Monitoring the Future
  • PATH – Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health
  • NSDUH – National Survey on Drug Use and Health

Items were retrieved from the publicly available questionnaires available at each of the surveys’ websites, and variable names for the items were pulled from either the publicly available questionnaire or codebook. For PATH, items were retrieved from the auxiliary crosswalk files also available on the PATH website.

Survey items include those with data collected between 2019-2025, and selected items focused on 1) tobacco use and cessation, 2) tobacco product type, and 3) tobacco-related communication topics.

Structure

  1. Summary: An overview of the surveys and broad item categories available in each survey. This tab lists the surveys included and provides links to each survey and pertinent information, including frequency of administration, sample size, mode of administration, design, and primary purpose. The summary also indicates which surveys contain items pertaining to the following tobacco-related communication item categories: tobacco product type; tobacco use and cessation; media and communication; perceptions and beliefs; secondhand exposure; access, purchasing, and social and environmental influences; and policy and household rules.

  1. Key: A list of the topics and subtopics used to categorize each survey item included in the catalog. It is possible that some items may fit into multiple categories. To increase the usability of this tool, items were categorized as belonging to a single topic and subtopic.

  1. Specific survey items: A tab for each of the surveys. Specific items are provided for each year they were fielded between 2019-2025. Items are categorized by topic and subtopic as outlined in the key. Users can filter items by topic, subtopic, and tobacco product type. Each item includes two labels corresponding to the dataset variable name (first label) and the questionnaire document variable name (second label).

Additional Notes

  • Please refer to and cite original documentation provided by the administrators of each survey.
  • This catalog is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every possible tobacco control and communication-relevant items found within these surveys.
  • Researchers should not use the topic/subtopic headings as a definitive categorization for the survey items, as categorizations were intended to facilitate usability of this tool.
  • Items related to cannabis and alcohol are not included in this catalog.