Abstract

Objective To examine the association of point-of-sale tobacco marketing with median income and racial/ethnic composition at the neighbourhood level in Omaha Metropolitan Area, Nebraska.

Methods Fieldworkers collected comprehensive tobacco marketing data from all of the stores that were licensed to sell tobacco in 84 randomly selected neighbourhoods in the Omaha Metropolitan Area, Nebraska.

Results An increase of $10 000 in median household income was associated with a decrease of 14.3% in the number of tobacco marketing items per square mile in a neighbourhood (p=0.021). There was very little evidence that the percentages of African-American and Hispanic populations in the neighbourhoods were related to tobacco marketing.

Conclusion Banning tobacco marketing, as recommended by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, is likely to reduce tobacco use disparities.