Helping Young Smokers Quit - Identifying Best Practices for Tobacco Cessation
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Youth & Tobacco Facts

AJHB Special Issue - Youth Cessation

Youth and Tobacco - Facts

•  Each day over 2,000 youth under the age of 18 become daily smokers, and nearly 5,000 youth age 12 to 17 try a cigarette for the first time.1
   
•  Between one-third and one-half of youth who try a cigarette will go on to become a daily smoker.2
   
•  24.4 percent of all children are current smokers by the time they leave high school.3
   
•  Nearly a quarter of all high school students (9-12 grades) are current smokers, including 21.2% of females and 24.6% of males.4
   
•  More than 90 percent of all adult smokers begin while in their teens, or earlier, and more than half become regular, daily smokers before they reach the age of 19.5
   
•  Young people with friends and family members who smoke are more likely to be smokers.6 Peer pressure can encourage smoking cessation among youth as well.
   
•  4.5 million youth under the age of 18 are current smokers.7
   
•  61% of high school smokers report that they want to quit.8
   
•  Studies have shown that early signs of heart disease and stroke can be found in adolescents who smoke.9
   
•  While many smokers believe that smoking relieves stress, it is actually a major cause. Smoking only appears to reduce stress because it lessens the irritability and tension caused by the underlying nicotine addiction.10

 

References

1.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Surveillance Summaries. MMWR 2002; 51(No. SS-4).
   
2.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Decline Selected Cigarette Smoking Initiation and Quitting Behaviors Among High School Students. MMWR 1998. 47(19):386-389.
   
3.  Johnston LD, O’Malley PM, Bachman JG. 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 2003.
   
4.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC, Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students – United States, 2002. MMWR 2003; 52(No. 45).
   
5.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Youth and Tobacco: Preventing Tobacco Use among Young People, A Report of the Surgeon General 1995.
   
6.  Holden DJ, Hund LM, Gable JM, Mowery P. Legacy First Look Report 11. Youth Tobacco Cessation: Results from the 2000 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Washington DC: American Legacy Foundation. July 2003.
   
7.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Results from the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables Prevalence Estimates, Standard Errors, and Sample Sizes. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. September 2003.
   
8.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Surveillance Summaries. MMWR 2001; 50(No. SS-4).
   
9.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Preventing Tobacco Use among Young People, A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.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 1994.
   
10.  Parrott, A.C., “Does Cigarette Smoking Cause Stress?,” American Psychologist 54(10): 817-20 (October 1999).

 
 
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Helping Young Smokers Quit is a National Program, supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Cancer Institute. Program direction and technical assistance are provided by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Health Research and Policy Centers. Copyright 2004.