The Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) within the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sponsoring the Quit & Thrive Challenge: Community-Derived Solutions to Reduce Menthol Cigarette Smoking to enhance the evidence base of interventions to help individuals from populations experiencing health disparities quit smoking, with a specific emphasis on menthol cigarettes. This Challenge encourages submissions from local and state organizations and agencies to highlight promising community-led solutions to address menthol cigarette smoking.
ODP and CDC may award up to nine prizes of $100,000 each. Information about the winning submissions will be prominently featured on ODP and CDC websites and publicly disseminated via social media.
Submissions open November 1, 2024, and all entries are due by February 28, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Upcoming Information Session
Register for a pre-submission webinar on December 17, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. ET, with ODP and CDC staff. Email specific questions to [email protected] at least 24 hours before the webinar. The webinar will cover:
Goals and overview of the Challenge
Eligibility and rules
How to submit an entry
Questions from attendees
About the ODP and CDC Quit & Thrive Challenge: Community-Derived Solutions to Reduce Menthol Cigarette Smoking
Combustible tobacco product use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Every year, nearly half a million Americans die prematurely due to smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke. Additionally, over 16 million individuals have smoking-related illnesses. The addition of menthol to cigarettes reduces the harshness of smoking and makes smoking more appealing. Menthol can also enhance the addictive effects of nicotine and make it more difficult for people to quit smoking. Youth, sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations, people with lower incomes, and racial and ethnic minority populations have higher rates of menthol cigarette use compared to other population groups. Over 80% of non-Hispanic Black adults who smoke use menthol cigarettes (www.cdc.gov/tobacco/menthol-tobacco/health-disparities.html). Despite this, there are few targeted cessation programs for menthol cigarette users.
In 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a product standard to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes (PDF) to reduce the likelihood that individuals who do not smoke will start and increase the likelihood that people who currently smoke menthol cigarettes will quit. The proposed menthol product standard, whether ultimately enacted or not, has brought attention to existing structural and systemic access barriers to smoking cessation resources, and highlights the time-sensitive need to quickly enhance the evidence base of interventions for populations experiencing health disparities. Although some cities, states, and communities have enacted laws or developed initiatives to reduce the use of menthol cigarettes, evaluation of such efforts is needed to enhance the evidence base.
Goal and Overview of the Challenge
The goal of this Challenge is to showcase promising and innovative community-derived solutions to reduce menthol cigarette smoking among groups with disproportionately high rates of menthol cigarette use, including youth, racial and ethnic minorities, SGM populations, and people with lower incomes. These solutions can then be used to inform future federally funded research initiatives or demonstration projects to enhance the evidence base, as well as to encourage broader adoption of best practices to reduce menthol cigarette smoking.
What are community-derived solutions?
Community-derived solutions refer to programs, policies, and other strategies that have already been implemented by local or state governmental agencies, community-based organizations, or service providers, and have been shown to be effective in reducing menthol cigarette use at the neighborhood, city, county, and/or state level. Community-derived solutions may include novel strategies or adaptations of evidence-based strategies tailored to the needs and preferences of populations with high levels of menthol cigarette use. Community-derived solutions do not need to have an exclusive focus on menthol cigarette use, but they must demonstrate specific effectiveness in reducing menthol cigarette use.
This Challenge is geared toward agencies or organizations responsible for implementing or delivering the community-derived solution(s). Projects that are supported by an NIH grant do not meet the definition of community-derived solutions. Solutions that propose to develop new smoking cessation products or to provide non-FDA approved alternatives to combustible tobacco products (e.g., electronic cigarettes) are not a priority for this Challenge.
Community-derived solutions with a specific focus or impact on populations with disproportionately high levels of menthol cigarette use may take a variety of forms, including but not limited to the following:
Local or state governmental laws or policies to limit the sale of menthol cigarettes, increase cigarette taxes, or restrict the number or density of neighborhood tobacco retailers
Implementation of existing evidence-based practices tailored to groups with disproportionately high rates of menthol cigarette use, including youth, SGM populations, people with lower incomes, and/or racial and ethnic minority populations
Programs to enhance compliance of tobacco sale outlets with laws prohibiting tobacco sales to minors OR strategies to enhance enforcement of these laws
Workplace, housing, or school-based cigarette smoking cessation services or programs
Employer or health care-based financial or other incentives to encourage smoking cessation
Public awareness campaigns about the risks of menthol cigarette smoking and/or the availability of local, state, or national smoking cessation resources
Programs that address social needs, such as housing instability or food insecurity, that make quitting cigarettes challenging
Programs that provide stress management strategies to help people quit smoking cigarettes (e.g., mindfulness training)
Programs that offer peer or social support to help people quit smoking cigarettes and remain abstinent
How can we demonstrate effectiveness of our community-derived solution?
Effectiveness of community-derived solutions can be demonstrated in a variety of ways, but effectiveness metrics should reflect measurable changes in behavior of people who smoke menthol cigarettes (e.g., cigarette purchasing or consumption, quit attempts). Metrics of effectiveness may include changes in individual knowledge or attitudes (e.g., greater awareness of risks of menthol cigarette smoking, intention to quit), but these changes alone are not sufficient for this Challenge if they are not accompanied by measurable changes in behavior.
Some examples of potential effectiveness metrics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Self-reported reduction in cigarette smoking and/or increase in quit attempts among those who smoke menthol cigarettes
Increased use of local, state, or national smoking quitline or helpline services by individuals who smoke menthol cigarettes
Increased use of evidence-based cessation treatments (behavioral cessation counseling, FDA-approved cessation medication) by individuals who smoke menthol cigarettes
Decreased sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, at the neighborhood, county, city, or state levels, as applicable
Measured improvements in air quality in indoor communal spaces (e.g., public housing) where individuals who smoke menthol cigarettes live, work, or congregate
Metrics of effectiveness should include data from before and after the implementation of community-derived solutions (e.g., a survey administered before and after a local smoking-related law is implemented). Metrics must include data for one or more populations with high rates of menthol cigarette smoking, including youth, racial and ethnic minorities, SGM populations, or people with low incomes.
Who is eligible?
Participation in the ODP and CDC Quit & Thrive Challenge is open to organizations that are incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, are not institutions of higher learning, and (at the time of submission) are not listed as the primary awardee on a NIH grant, cooperative agreement, or contract award.
For the purposes of this Challenge, an “institution of higher learning” means a “college, university, or similar institution, including a technical or business school, offering postsecondary level academic instruction that leads to an associate or higher degree if the school is empowered by the appropriate State education authority under State law to grant an associate or higher degree. When there is no State law to authorize the granting of a degree, the school may be recognized as an institution of higher learning if it is accredited for degree programs by a recognized accrediting agency. Such term shall also include an educational institution which is not located in a State, which offers a course leading to a standard college degree, or the equivalent, and which is recognized as such by the secretary of education (or comparable official) of the country or other jurisdiction in which the institution is located.” [38 U.S.C. § 3452(f)].
Examples of eligible organizations include but are not limited to the following:
State and local tobacco control agencies
Other state or local governmental agencies such as departments of public health, housing, parks and recreation, transportation, or social services
School systems
Health clinics or hospitals
Patient or consumer advocacy groups
Community-based organizations
Faith-based organizations
Eligible organizations may choose to partner with other groups, but the lead organization submitting to this Challenge must meet the criteria stated above.
Partners
The Quit & Thrive Challenge: Community-Derived Solutions to Reduce Menthol Cigarette Smoking is a partnership between ODP and CDC, with cash prize awards issued by NIH.
Key Dates
Challenge announcement: September 1, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET
Submission period opens: November 1, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET
Submission period closes: February 28, 2025, 12:59 p.m. ET
Judging period: April–May 2025
Awardees announced: July 2025
Statutory Authority to Conduct the Challenge
ODP and CDC are conducting this Challenge under the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010, as amended [15 U.S.C. § 3719]. ODP, through its NIH-wide ADVANCE (Advancing Prevention Research for Health Equity) initiative, supports the development of new prevention interventions and of strategies to deliver existing evidence-based interventions and preventive services in populations that experience health disparities.
In accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 282(f) of the Public Health Service Act, as amended, the mission of ODP is to improve public health by increasing the scope, quality, dissemination, and impact of prevention research supported by NIH. As a coordinating office in the NIH Office of the Director, ODP fulfills this mission by providing leadership for the development, coordination, and implementation of prevention research in collaboration with NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, and other partners.
This Challenge supports the mission of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) to protect the public’s health from the harmful effects of tobacco use. A key activity of OSH is to reduce tobacco-related health disparities, death, and disease. Relevant to both ODP and CDC, this challenge directly aligns with the HHS Framework to Support and Accelerate Smoking Cessation 2024 (PDF). Ultimately, this Challenge will inform the efforts of ODP and CDC to reduce health disparities and increase national focus on supporting and accelerating smoking cessation.
Awards:- $900,000
Deadline:- 01-03-2025
