The following graph and tables in this interactive document are provided to present the historical results of the Synar survey from 2008 to 2017. Hover over the points on the graph to display the year, weighted rate, lower limit and upper limit for each year. Filter and sort the columns in the tables to narrow and compare results.
Below are some helpful definitions you may need while reviewing the report:
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Completion – the outcome of a compliance check when the result is a “Sale” or a “Refusal.”
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Compliance check – the act of attempting to purchase cigarettes by an underage person. Compliance checks are used to determine if an outlet is in compliance with the tobacco law. If the outlet does not sell cigarettes to the minor, they are in compliance.
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Eligible outlet – an outlet that sells cigarettes over-the-counter and is accessible to all youth between the ages of 15 and 17 inclusive.
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Violation rate – the primary estimate produced by the Synar survey. It represents the percent of outlets that violated the law prohibiting retailers to sell cigarettes to minors. It is the ratio of outlets that sold cigarettes (to minors) to all eligible outlets in the survey.
For more information regarding the Synar Survey, including a brief overview and links to survey instructions, design, training and results documents, please click here.
Regional Violation Rates: 2008-2017
Note 1: Confidence limits (“Lower limit”, “Upper limit”) were calculated using the t-distribution with the degrees of freedom (df) determined by subtracting the total strata from the total clusters.
Note 2: The weighted rate takes into account unequal probabilities of selection and non-completions.
Note 3: When “Total violations” = 0, the “Rule of Three (3/n)” is used to calculate “Upper limit.”
Note 4: The “Weighted rate”, “Standard error”, “Lower limit” and “Upper limit” were suppressed if “Outlets completed” was below 40.
Year to Year Statewide Violation Rate Comparisons
Note 1: Significance set at “Probability > chisq” less than 0.05.
Note 2: “Odds Ratio” suppressed when “Probability > chisq” greater than or equal to 0.05, i.e. the rates were not significantly different.
Note 3: “Odds ratio” describes the strength of association between the two violation rates.