THURSDAY, June 17, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Cigarette smoking among U.S. high school students has plummeted to its lowest rate since officials started keeping track in 1991.
These low rates also represent the first time in more than 20 years that smoking among America's youth has dipped below the rate of smoking in adults, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The rate of smoking in youth, who are the pipeline to the maintaining of this addiction, is finally being shut off," said Terry Pechacek, co-author of a study appearing in the June 18 issue of the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and associate director of science at the agency's Office on Smoking and Health. "If we continue to shut off this pipeline, we can turn the corner on the national epidemic of tobacco-related diseases and eventually cure this problem."
In 2003, only 21.9 percent of high school students in the United States smoked, a 40 percent drop from 36.4 percent in 1997. In 1991, when statistics were first recorded, 27.5 percent of high school students were smokers.
The rate of current smokers is still higher than national health objectives stipulate for 2010 (less than 16 percent), indicating that sustained efforts will be needed if further progress is to be made.
"On one hand, yes, it is a reflection of progress that has been made over the last several years in terms of comprehensive state programs, higher excise taxes, smoke-free laws. As a result, we're starting to see what we expected to happen, which is a marked reduction in youth initiation and prevalence rates," said Matthew Barry, senior policy analyst at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C. "The concern and caution is that only four states meet CDC standards for funding, and many states that used to have the best programs are starting to see reversals in those reductions."
For this report, researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of public and private high school students in grades nine through 12. All participants completed anonymous, self-administered questionnaires about cigarette use.
In addition to current smoking, lifetime cigarette use declined from 70.4 percent in 1999 to 58.4 percent in 2003. The prevalence of current frequent users decreased from 16.8 percent in 1999 to 9.7 percent in 2003.
Current smoking is defined as having a cigarette on more than one of the 30 days preceding the study; current "frequent" smoking is having had cigarettes on more than 20 of the 30 days preceding the survey; and lifetime cigarette use is "ever tried cigarette smoking, even one or two puffs."
The report attributed these declines to a number of factors, namely a 90 percent increase in the retail price of cigarettes between December 1997 and May 2003; more school-based programs to prevent tobacco use; and more media campaigns aimed at preventing smoking among youth funded by the states or the American Legacy Foundation.
Statistical and financial models, however, showed that these factors should have contributed to an even greater decline. "Forty percent is very positive, but it's not as big as we would have predicted," Pechacek said. "Something is going on that is blunting the effect."
Some factors may include tobacco advertising and promotion, which jumped from $5.7 billion in 1997 to $11.2 billion in 2001; reductions in the proportion of Master Settlement Agreement funds that were used for prevention; and continuing depiction of smoking in films.
And some of the factors that have reduced the rate of smoking (such as price increases) cannot be expected to continue. That means additional strategies are needed.
Hopefully, state budget crises are easing and will allow states to reinstate prevention programs aimed at youth. "We know that these programs work," Pechacek said. "Florida was a leader in the smoking prevention model and it went from $35 million to zero. We're hoping that states will be able to restore funding levels now that budgets are getting stronger."
Broad public-private partnerships are also needed to reduce the depiction of smoking in movies.
"This [report] is great evidence of the fact that we know it works and we should be doing these things. There aren't any excuses that we don't know what works. We do know," Barry said. "If we fail in our diligence in this regard, we're going to be looking at increasing tobacco use rates among our kids, and that's something none of us wants to see."
More information
For more on smoking among young people, visit the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
