Daily Cigarette Use
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Headline

Overall, daily cigarette use among eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students has declined dramatically in the last decade, falling by more than half among eighth and tenth graders between 1996 and 2006. In recent years, however, this decline has halted among eighth and tenth graders. (See Figure 1)

Importance

Cigarette smoking, an addictive behavior usually established in adolescence, is the primary preventable cause of death in the United States.¹ More than 430,000 people die each year from tobacco-related illnesses. A recent report by the Surgeon General found that reducing the prevalence of smoking to the levels suggested by the Healthy People 2010 initiative would prevent 7.1 million premature deaths after the year 2010.²

Youth who smoke are more likely to drink, to use other drugs, and to engage in a variety of other risky behaviors. ⁴ They are also less likely to be physically fit and more likely to suffer from respiratory problems.⁵ The media can play a role in influencing adolescents' opinions on the acceptability of smoking. According to results from the National Youth Tobacco Survey in 2004, 78 percent of middle school students and 87 percent of high school students reported seeing actors using tobacco in movies or on television. A little more than a third (34 percent of middle school students and 39 percent of high school students) reported seeing advertisements for tobacco products on the internet.⁶ According to other results from the survey, among middle- and high-school students in 2004, around two-thirds of current smokers were not asked to show proof of age when purchasing cigarettes nor were they refused purchase because of their age.⁷

Trends

Daily cigarette use fell by more than half among eighth and tenth grade students between 1996 and 2006. In 2006, 4 percent of eighth graders and 8 percent of tenth graders reported smoking daily, compared with 10 percent and 18 percent, respectively, in 1996. This decline has come to a halt for these two age groups, however, remaining around the same percentage for the past three years. Among students in the twelfth grade, daily cigarette use continued to decline through 2006. Twelfth grade cigarette use peaked at 25 percent in 1997 during the 1990's, before falling to 12 percent in 2006. Data for twelfth grade students dating back to the mid-1970s indicate rates of smoking as high as 29 percent in 1976. (See Figure 1)

Differences by Gender

Rates of smoking for boys and girls in eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade have been similar in recent years*. (See Table 1)

*Note: 2005 is the latest year for which these estimates are available.

Differences by Race and Ethnicity⁸

White students have the highest levels of smoking, with rates among tenth and twelfth graders that are more than twice those of black students*. Hispanic students' rates of daily smoking fall in between those of whites and blacks. For example, among twelfth graders, 17 percent of white students reported smoking daily in 2005, compared with 6 percent of black students and 8 percent of Hispanic students. (See Figure 2)

*Note: 2005 was the latest year for which these estimates are available.

Differences by Age

Daily smoking among students increases with age. While only 4 percent of eighth graders reported daily cigarette use in 2006, by twelfth grade 12 percent of students reported daily cigarette use. (See Figure 1)

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Differences by Parental Education Level

Students whose parents have a high level of education are less likely to smoke cigarettes daily than students whose parents have low levels of education. For example, in 2005, 8 percent of eighth grade students with a parent who did not complete high school smoked cigarettes, compared with between 1 and 2 percent of those with a parent who had completed college or graduate school*.(See Table 1)

*Note: 2005 is the latest year for which these estimates are available.

Differences by College Plans

Eighth grade students who plan to complete four years of college are nearly five times less likely than students who do not have such plans to smoke daily (14 percent versus 3 percent in 2005)*. As students get older this gap decreases slightly. (See Table 1)

*Note: 2005 is the latest year for which these estimates are available.

Related Indicators

Binge Drinking, Marijuana Use, Illicit Drug Use

State and Local Estimates

2005 estimates for cigarette use are available for select states and cities from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/SS/SS5505.pdf (See Table 23)

Estimates of cigarette use in the past month among 12- to 17-year-olds are available for all 50 states for 2003-2004 from the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse at: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k4State/appB.htm#TabB.14 (See Table B.14)
NOTE: Estimates of drug use from the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse (NHSDA), used to generate these state-level estimates, are generally lower than estimates generated by the Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF). Since the MTF was the source of the national estimates presented in this indicator, users should not make direct comparisons of estimates made from the two sources. For information on methodological differences in the surveys that may be causing these differences in estimates, see Harrison, L.D. (2001). Understanding the differences in youth drug prevalence rates produced by the MTF, NHSDA, and YRBS studies. Journal of Drug Issues, 31(3), pp. 665-694.

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International Estimates

A cross country comparison of the percentage of youth who report smoking daily is available at: The Global Youth Tobacco Survey Collaborative Group. "Tobacco use among youth: a cross country comparison" Tobacco Control 2002 Sep. 11(3): 252-70. http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/3/252 (See Table 2c)

Estimates for youth in European countries in 1999 are available at: http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espadsummary.pdf (See Table 2c)

The percentage of students who report smoking daily is available for 28 countries from the WHO Policy Series: Health policy for children and adolescents, Issue 1 (Data from 1997/1998). http://www.childpolicyintl.org/siyouth/Table347.pdf

National Goals

Given the serious health consequences associated with adolescent smoking, the federal government has set a national goal through its Healthy People 2010 initiative to reduce the percentage of high school students smoking one or more cigarettes in the prior month from the 1999 level of 35 percent to 16 percent by 2010. To reach this goal, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advocating the use of education programs, which work to prevent smoking and to encourage cessation of smoking.⁹

More information available at:
http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/document/html/objectives/27-02.htm
http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/Document/HTML/Volume2/27Tobacco.htm

What Works: Programs and Interventions that May Influence this Indicator

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Research References

¹ Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Item Rationale for the 2001 Questionnaire available at: http://www.k-12.state.tn.us/yrbs/ciyrbs01/index.htm

²U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Washington, D.C.: U.S. GPO, 2004.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_2004/index.htm

³ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health.2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2000. http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/Document/HTML/Volume2/27Tobacco.htm

⁴ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Washington, D.C.: U.S. GPO, 1994. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_1994/index.htm

⁵ ibid.

⁶ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tobacco use, access, and exposure to tobacco in media among middle and high school students-United States, 2004. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 54(12): 297-305. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5412.pdf

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Estimates for race and ethnicity are based on 2-year averages.

⁹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health. 2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2000. http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/Document/HTML/Volume2/27Tobacco.htm

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Definition

Students are defined as daily cigarette smokers if they said that they smoked one or more cigarettes per day in the last 30 days.

Data Source

Data for 2006: Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G. & Schulenberg, J. E. (December 21, 2006). Decline in daily smoking by younger teens has ended. University of Michigan News and Information Services: Ann Arbor, MI.[On-line]. Table 1. Available at: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/data/06data.html#2006data-cigs; accessed 3/15/07.

Data for 2005 and 2004: Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (2006). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2005. Volume I: Secondary school students (NIH Publication No. 06-5883). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse. Tables D-90, D-91, and D-92. http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol1_2005.pdf.

Data for 2003: Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2003. Volume I: Secondary school students (NIH Publication No. 04-5507). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse Online. Tables 4-7, 4-8, D-65, and D-66. Available at http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol1_2003.pdf.

Data for 2002 and earlier years: Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (2003). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2002. Volume I: Secondary school students (NIH Publication No. 03-5375). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse. Tables D-54 and D-55. http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol1_2002.pdf

Raw Data Source

The Monitoring the Future Survey
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org

Approximate Date of Next Update

Unknown

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