Youth Prevention

Research

Current cigarette smoking among in-school American youth: Results from the 2004 National Youth Tobacco Survey
Using the 2004 data set from the U.S. Youth Tobacco Survey, researchers examined the effects of age, gender, race, peer influences, living with a smoker, amount of pocket money, and beliefs about smoking on smoking status. The secondary data analysis was narrowed to a subset of the data that included only adolescents who were current cigarette smokers. The researchers found that aside from American Indians, white non-Hispanic youth were more likely to be smokers than members of all other racial/ethnic backgrounds. Other factors associated with being a current smoker were being an older adolescent, having increased amounts of pocket money, being male and perceiving smoking to not be harmful. The analysis is published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, a peer-reviewed open access journal. Click here to read an abstract of the study.

truth® campaign can save half a million lives and billions of dollars
A new study suggests that the truth® anti-tobacco campaign has had a significant effect in preventing youth from smoking, and that the campaign is cost-effective. Estimating that truth® has prevented 450,000 youths from smoking between 2000 and 2004, the researchers indicate that the cost of this intervention is modest, compared to other interventions. Click here to read a summary of the findings in a press release from the Citizens' Commission to Protect the Truth. Click here read the research article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Early exposure to movie smoking predicts established smoking by older teens and young adults
A study published in the April 2009 issue of Pediatrics identifies a link between youths’ exposure to smoking in movies and smoking later in life. Researchers used a school-based study to assess movie smoking exposure among youths aged 10-14. Those who had never tried smoking at the start of the study were interviewed seven years later about their smoking status. Thirteen percent of study participants became smokers during the study period. Higher exposure to smoking in movies was associated with a greater risk of becoming an established smoker. Previous studies have focused on the relationship between movie smoking and youth smoking initiation, but this study adds to the evidence that exposure to smoking in movies can have a long-term impact on smoking. Click here to access the full article.

Smoking patterns in Oregon youth: Effects of funding and defunding of a comprehensive state tobacco control program
In 2003, the Oregon Tobacco Prevention and Education Program faced a 70% budget cut, and the school component was entirely defunded. In order to establish the effects of this policy change, researchers compared the smoking prevalence among adolescents during program funding, and after school districts had lost their program funding. Smoking was significantly more prevalent among youths in schools that had lost their program funding, compared to during the funding period. Smoking did not significantly differ between schools that had been defunded and schools that had never received program funding. This study demonstrates that tobacco use prevention funding affects youth smoking prevalence, but program benefits can be quickly lost upon program defunding. Read more here. The study is published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Tough laws, higher prices mean fewer kids smoke: Study finds that enforcing existing laws cuts rate by 21 percent
A recent study correlated the findings from a 2003 survey of adolescents’ smoking habits with state-collected data on merchants’ compliance with anti-tobacco laws. The study found that increased tobacco prices and stronger merchant enforcement of bans on tobacco sales to minors were independently associated with a lower likelihood of teen smoking. The analysis found that improved merchant compliance with tobacco laws accounted for an estimated 21% decline in the odds of smoking among teens. Additionally, the average national increase in the cost of a pack of cigarettes from 1997-2003, combined with increases in law compliance during this period, reduced the odds of daily smoking by almost 47%. This study adds to the growing body of evidence showing that government mandates are highly effective in reducing tobacco use. Click here to read more. Click here to read an abstract in the journal BioMed Central Public Health.

top

Reports

New tobacco products have local schools worried (IN)
Almost all school campuses in Madison County, Indiana are smoke-free, but teachers are raising concerns about new tobacco products that can be used covertly on school grounds. Marlboro recently released a tobacco product called Snus, pouches of tobacco that are placed in the mouth. In Central Indiana, which is one of three test sites, Camel is piloting another easily hidden oral tobacco product called Orbs, tobacco tablets that can be eaten. The packaging of these products resembles chewing gum packaging, making the items easier to conceal on school property and more appealing to a young demographic. Concerns have also been expressed that students might put themselves in danger by consuming several of the oral products at a time to achieve the stimulant effect of a nicotine buzz. Click here to read more.

St. Paul bans candy in form of tobacco (MN)
The St. Paul City Council voted to pass a law that will ban the sale of imitation tobacco products and novelty lighters. Effective in May, candy cigarettes and lighters in whimsical shapes that look like toys will no longer be sold. The law was researched and drafted by a group of youth affiliated with Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota. Some states have banned novelty lighters, and some major retailers have policies against selling candy cigarettes. However, St. Paul may be the first U.S. city to ban both types of items. Click here to read more.

Pick your poison: Responses to the marketing and sale of flavored tobacco products
The Tobacco Control Legal Consortium (TCLC) published its latest law synopsis on legal approaches for intervening against marketing of candy-, alcohol-, and fruit-flavored tobacco products that target youth. Research has shown that flavored tobacco products are attractive to youth, and tobacco industry documents indicate that companies are aware of this. The Master Settlement Agreement prohibits tobacco companies from targeting youth, but the MSA has not yet been used to regulate the marketing and sale of flavored cigarettes. However, if the bill for FDA regulation of tobacco is passed, flavored tobacco will be banned. In the meantime, states have the legal authority to restrict the sale of these products. Click here to download the law synopsis, or click here to visit the TCLC website.

National Consortium on Tobacco Use Prevention through Schools
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) launched a new website that provides information about the National Consortium on Tobacco Use Prevention through Schools and what is being done across the country to promote comprehensive tobacco-free school policies. The website also offers resources to help advance comprehensive tobacco-free school policies and links to organizations working in the field of tobacco-free schools. As part of its cooperative agreement with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, the NSBA serves as the convener of the National Consortium on Tobacco Use Prevention through Schools. The Consortium works to develop strategies to strengthen state-level partnerships that involve state school boards associations and other key stakeholders to support tobacco prevention among youth through comprehensive tobacco-free school policies. Click here to visit the website.

Short changed: Broken promises on tobacco control place millions of kids across New England at risk for addiction and early death
A special report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids identifies a missed opportunity to reduce tobacco use in New England. Significant progress has been made in the ten years since the 1998 state tobacco settlement, but only two New England states, Maine and Vermont, are currently funding tobacco prevention and control programs at even half the CDC-recommended level. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island are all providing less than twenty percent of the recommended funding. In this six-state region, only 2.6% of the $1.8 billion in tobacco taxes collected this year will be used for tobacco prevention programs. To reach the CDC-recommended funding levels, states would have to spend 10.5% of their total revenue from the settlement and tobacco taxes. States are facing budgetary challenges, but legislators could significantly cut tobacco-related healthcare costs and reduce lost productivity by investing additional money in prevention and cessation programs. Click here to download the full report. Click here to read a summary of the key findings.

top

International

Tobacco use among students aged 13--15 years --- Baghdad, Iraq, 2008
In 2008, the Iraqi Ministry of Health conducted the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in Baghdad. GYTS is a school-based survey of students aged 13–15 years. According to the report, smoking tobacco in shisha (also known as hookahs or water pipes) appears to be a preferred form of tobacco use for young people. This is a concern because the harmful health effects of shisha can exceed those of cigarette smoking. Overall, 13% of never-smokers indicated they might initiate cigarette smoking in the next year. The likely initiation of cigarette smoking by girls who have never smoked cigarettes (11.8%) is significantly higher than the current cigarette smoking rate for girls (2.7%) and may result in an increase in the future burden of disease caused by tobacco use in Iraq. Click here to read the full MMWR report.

top

Back to Table of Contents