Advancing Science and Practice in the Retail Environment (ASPiRE) Retailer Density & Disease Study

Although the prevalence of cigarette smoking among US adults is at a historic low, tobacco use disparities persist among priority populations defined by income, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, mental illness and other attributes. Unfortunately, many states and communities are stalled in their efforts to implement traditional tobacco control interventions, such as increasing tobacco taxes and promoting smoke-free policies. Alternatively, more states and communities are planning and implementing innovative solutions that focus on the retail environment for tobacco. Examples of such strategies are non-tax mechanisms to increase prices and restrictions on the quantity, type, and location of tobacco retailers. The proposed national, multi-site ASPiRE Center will advance the scientific basis for such regulation with an integrated and synergistic set of novel research projects that will comprehensively examine the interrelationships among the policy and retail environments and their impacts on tobacco use, tobacco-related cancer and other diseases, and health inequities.