Inequalities in Tobacco Retailer Compliance Violations Across the State of Oklahoma, 2015–2019

Objective

To evaluate the relationship between compliance check violations, and characteristics of the tobacco retailer and neighborhood social vulnerability in Oklahoma.

Design

This cross-sectional study utilized the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Compliance Check Inspections of Tobacco Product Retailers database for 2015–2019. These data were combined with Neighborhood social vulnerability variables using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index.

Setting

The setting of this study is the state of Oklahoma, USA.

Outcome measures

The outcome variable for this analysis was whether a sale was made to the youth during the compliance check (e.g., violation; yes/no) regardless of the outcome of the violation, and number of violations per a retailer.

Results

We observed a strong association between having a violation and retailer store type, after controlling for socioeconomic vulnerability and percentage of mobile homes. The proportion of a tobacco retailer’s violations also varied by store type.

Conclusions

More targeted enforcements and retailer education by store type may be necessary to increase compliance.