Tobacco use among middle and high school students--United States, 2013

Abstract

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, and nearly all tobacco use begins during youth and young adulthood. Among U.S. youths, cigarette smoking has declined in recent years; however, the use of some other tobacco products has increased, and nearly half of tobacco users use two or more tobacco products. CDC analyzed data from the 2013 National Youth Tobacco Survey to determine the prevalence of ever (at least once) and current (at least 1 day in the past 30 days) use of one or more of 10 tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars, hookahs, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes [e-cigarettes], pipes, snus, bidis, kreteks, and dissolvable tobacco) among U.S. middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) students. In 2013, 22.9% of high school students reported current use of any tobacco product, and 12.6% reported current use of two or more tobacco products; current use of combustible products (i.e., cigarettes, cigars, pipes, bidis, kreteks, and/or hookahs) was substantially greater (20.7%) than use of other types of tobacco. Also, 46.0% of high school students reported having ever tried a tobacco product, and 31.4% reported ever trying two or more tobacco products. Among middle school students, 3.1% reported current use of cigars, and 2.9% reported current use of cigarettes, with non-Hispanic black students more than twice as likely to report current use of cigars than cigarettes. Monitoring the prevalence of the use of all available tobacco products, including new and emerging products, is critical to support effective population-based interventions to prevent and reduce tobacco use among youths as part of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs.

FIGURE

Tobacco use* among middle and high school students — National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2013 ^* Tobacco is use of cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, tobacco pipes, bidis, kreteks, hookah, snus, dissolvable tobacco, and/or electronic cigarettes. ^† Only electronic cigarette use is exclusive use of only electronic cigarettes. It does not include use of any other product. ^§ Only noncombustible tobacco use is exclusive use of only smokeless tobacco, snus, and/or dissolvable tobacco. It does not include use of combustible products or electronic cigarettes. ^¶ Only combustible tobacco use is exclusive use of only cigarettes, cigars, pipes, bidis, kreteks, and/or hookah. It does not include use of noncombustible products or electronic cigarettes. ^** Data statistically unstable because relative standard error is >0.3. ^†† Percentages for only noncombustible and electronic cigarettes are minimal but are indicated between only combustible and noncombustible use and only combustible and electronic cigarette use. Data are statistically unstable because relative standard error is >0.3.