Trends in Tobacco Use among High School Students: NYTS 2000-2011

Audience: This presentation will benefit epidemiologists, statisticians, and other public health professionals who monitor the use of tobacco products among youth at the local, state/territorial, or national levels. Key Points: Data from the 2000 to 2011 National Youth Tobacco Surveys (NYTS) were analyzed to obtain weighted estimates of the percentage of U.S. high school students who reported current tobacco use. Only respondents who answered all six questions regarding past 30 day use of cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis, and kreteks were included in the analysis, and current tobacco users were those who used at least 1 of the above mentioned products on at least 1 day of the past 30 days. Current tobacco users were then stratified into mutually exclusive categories by type(s) of products currently used. For each combination of current product use, linear trends where assessed from 2000 to 2011 using logistic regression adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade (p<0.05 was used to determine statistical significance). From 2000 to 2011, linear declines were observed for any current tobacco use (33.6% to 22.2%) and for current use of cigarettes-only (14.2% to 6.3%). No significant trends over time were observed for any other tobacco product use categories. Educational Experience: Through presentation of the NYTS data, participants will learn about trends in tobacco product use among U.S. high school students. Benefits: Patterns of current tobacco product(s) use among U.S. youth described in this presentation may provide insight into why the rates of decline for cigarette smoking appear have slowed down since 2002-2003.