Working with a contractor to conduct the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS) – 10/5/11

Q: Please see below for a Help Your Peers request from the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) and Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI) Evaluation and Research Division about states’ experiences working with a contractor to conduct the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS).
 
Louisiana would like to learn:

• Which contractor(s) has your state worked with to administer an Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS)? Were you happy with the work? Would you use that contractor again? Why/why not?
   
• If your state is doing a 2011-2012 ATS or has done an independent ATS in the past, please share an example RFP. We at LPHI can do the analysis but would like to send a targeted RFP to 4-5 agencies who could manage the sample, conduct the data collection, and provide us with the dataset and supporting files.

A:

1. Alabama: Alabama's Tobacco Program has contracted with The University of Alabama's Institute for Social Science Research department to administer the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS). We've contracted with UA on many occasions and have been satisfied with their services. Our Tobacco program and UA has a great working relationship, therefore, we will continue to use their services.
    
2. Idaho: Idaho has not recently conducted an ATS, and the company we last used was bought out by another firm.
    
   However, Idaho did just complete a cardiovascular health survey in which the data collection (via telephone) was conducted by the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center (WYSAC). They did an excellent job for us.
    
3. Indiana: Indiana has worked with RTI International to conduct its Indiana ATS in 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2008. We worked with AIR (American Institutes for Research) to conduct the 2004 ATS.
    
   You might also see if your contractor and/or you could work with a state based university, in a survey research center, to do the data collection. Your contractor should then give technical support and oversight to this university partner as well.
    
   The ATS task is part of our overall external evaluation contract. The attached information describes the scope of work specifics on the ATS.
    
4. Missouri: Missouri conducted the ATS as part of our County-level Study in 2002 and 2007, and we are conducting it again this calendar year. The contractor for data collection has been the University of Missouri-Columbia Health and Behavioral Risk Research Center. The Missouri Tobacco Control Program can be contacted for a reference.
    
5. New Hampshire: We have not done an ATS in New Hampshire since 2002. There are no plans to do it again due to funding limitations.
    
6. North Dakota: The North Dakota Tobacco Prevention and Control Program has contracted with the Wyoming Survey Analysis Center (WYSAC) at the University of Wyoming for conducting the 2009 North Dakota Adult Tobacco Survey (ND ATS) and we will be conducting our second ND ATS soon. Obviously, we were quite happy with WYSAC’s work as we are conducting another round of the ATS with them. They also conduct the ATS in Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota and coordinate well with the CDC. Please see attached for a sample RFP.
    
7. South Dakota: South Dakota has used the Minnesota Institute of Public Health, and they would do an excellent job.
    
   Minnesota Institute of Public Health
   2720 Highway 10 NE
   Mounds View, MN 55112
   Phone: 763-427-5310; 800-782-1878
   Fax: 763-427-7841
   http://www.miph.org
    
8. West Virginia: For the past three (and soon to be four) West Virginia Adult Tobacco Surveys (every other year - 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011) West Virginia has facilitated our WVATS through West Virginia University’s Prevention Research Center and the Independent Data Collection Center (IDCC) of Gainesville, Florida. See www.independentdata.org for information about IDCC. IDCC is nothing short of wonderful and does exceptional work!

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