Decreases in adolescent tobacco use leveling off
Source: HemOncToday.com Declines in rates of adolescent tobacco use have stagnated in the past few years, prompting the CDC to call for better prevention efforts, according to a recent report. “Smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States; and among adult established smokers in the United States, more than 80% began smoking before age 18 years,” CDC researchers wrote. To evaluate behaviors and attitudes toward tobacco use during the critical period of adolescence, the researchers used National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) data collected from 2000 to 2009. The NYTS, which presents school-based survey responses from a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of middle school and high school students, gleans information on youth tobacco use; smoking cessation; tobacco-related knowledge and attitudes; access to tobacco; media and advertising and secondhand smoke exposure. The study has been conducted every 2 years since 2000. From the 205 participating schools, 22,679 students responded. They were polled about any use of, current use of and experimentation with certain tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, pipes, bidis and kreteks. Survey questions also investigated students’ willingness to initiate tobacco use. Results indicated that 8.2% of middle school students and 23.9% of high school students reported current tobacco use in 2009, the researchers said, with 5.2% of middle school and 17.2% of high school students reporting current cigarette use. The researchers also noted that 21.2% of middle school and 24% of high school students were willing to start smoking cigarettes. Data [...]