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Selected Cigarette Smoking
Initiation and Quitting Behaviors Among High School Students
United States, 1997
47(19);386-389, May 22, 1998
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The Friday, May 22, 1998, issue of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report (MMWR) contains a new CDC study, "Selected Cigarette Smoking Initiation
and Quitting Behaviors Among High School Students—United States, 1997." The study
found that more than a third of high school students who ever try cigarette smoking
escalate to patterns of daily use before they graduate.
The study complements this year’s
theme for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World No-Tobacco Day, to be held May
31, 1998, which is "Growing up without Tobacco." WHO encourages governments,
communities, organizations, schools, families, and individuals to focus attention on the
increasing epidemic of tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. Recommended actions
include preventing nicotine addiction among young persons, protecting nonsmokers from the
dangers of environmental tobacco smoke, and providing effective youth-oriented smoking
cessation programs.
The study found that most young people
underestimate the allure of cigarettes and their addictiveness, accounting for the
significant number of adolescent smokers shifting from experimentation to regular use and
later finding it difficult to quit. Other findings of the study include
- Of the nearly three-fourths of
adolescents (70.2 percent) who have ever tried smoking, more than a third (35.8 percent)
went on to become daily smokers during high school.
- Nearly three-quarters (72.9 percent)
of adolescent smokers who have ever smoked cigarettes daily have attempted to quit;
however, among those, the majority (86.5 percent) continue to smoke, most likely because
of the addictive nature of nicotine.
- Among those who have ever tried
smoking, white high school students (41.7 percent) were more likely to become daily
smokers than Hispanic (24.5 percent) or African American (14.9 percent) students.
Selected Cigarette Smoking
Initiation and Quitting Behaviors Among High School Students—United States, 1997
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