Smoking among Asian American and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander youth: data from the 2000 National Youth Tobacco Survey

Abstract

Objectives: One of the first steps to reducing the disproportionate burden of tobacco on racial and ethnic minorities is to understand how tobacco differentially affects these populations. This paper, based on a nationally representative sample of Asian American youth and a smaller sample of Hawaiian/Pacific Islander youth, provides the tobacco control community with important information about the smoking behavior of these youth.

Methods: The National Youth Tobacco Survey conducted during the Spring of 2000 (NYTS 2000) provides recent national estimates of smoking behavior among Asian American youth. The data also permit a limited exploration of possible differences between self-described Asians and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander youth, two groups that have been combined into a single racial/ethnic category in earlier national studies.

Findings: This report provides estimates and 95 percent confidence intervals for current smoking, age of smoking initiation, use of menthol cigarettes and tobacco brand preferences.

Conclusions: NYTS 2000 data indicate that during the last year of high school, one third of Asian American youth are smokers. Of these youth, 60% report that their usual brand of cigarettes is a menthol brand. Among female Hawaiian/Pacific Islander youth in middle school, more than 25% report having smoked during the past month.