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Data Dashboard

San Joaquin Valley Data Hub 

As part of the NCPC's funding extension from the Tobacco Related Disease Program (TRDRP), we aim to develop a key resource in the coming year that will be specifically designed to support local tobacco advocates and researchers inform and guide the development of appropriate tobacco policies throughout the valley.

The proposed Data Dashboard will be designed to help return data back to communities in a visible, easily accessible format. A data dashboard is also a platform that can be regularly updated, expanded, while visually communicating complex data to the public in an understandable and accesible manner. Dashboards are also flexible in the types of data that can be represented. Moreover, a dashboard provides opportunities to examine trends, as a function of community- social factors, such as policy enactments or changes in the retail environment.

LOCAL POLICY BENEFITS

Local advocates consistently face the challenge of convincing local policy makers that tobacco use is a serious issue and that up to date and relevent policies are one of the most effective means of curbing tobacco use and preventing tobacco-related diseases. As advocates report, they are consistently told that there isn’t data to support the argument that tobacco use is a problem, or are told that the problem is not something policies can fix because tobacco use is an individual’s decision. In this regard, NCPC's data dashboard would be utilized as a powerful tool for local policy change in several ways:

  1. Although local policy makers frame tobacco use as an individual’s choice, most also agree that products should not be sold to youth. In this regard, dashboard data on confiscated tobacco products and secret shopper results demonstrating the extent and variety of tobacco products that are easily accessible to youth will strengthen advocates efforts to advocate for policy change.
  2. Most policymakers and community members generally agree that existing tobacco policies, particularly those passed by referendums, should be followed and enforced within the community. In this regard, the NCPC data dashboard can be used by SJV tobacco advocates as an innovative tool to help develop a multi-prong strategy within the community in order to educate tobacco retailers on complying with all policies.
  3.  Community advocates need a way to efficiently announce major policy “wins”, such as Madera’s recent passage of smokefree public parks and Fresno’s movement towards smokefree public housing. These announcements are crucial as advocates can quickly see where policies are being passed. The data dashboard will allow all recent policy developments to be seen and used by advocates to motivate policymakers into joining any neighboring communities as they protect community health.

WEBINAR

Watch a recent NCPC Webinar below, which has an amazing presentation from Trent Johnson, who runs the California Tobacco Health Assessment Tool (CTHAT) at Stanford University School of Medicine and which helps to frame what we are trying to achieve with the NCPC Data Dashboard.

Understanding Tobacco Data Needs in the San Joaquin Valley