Twenty percent of surveyed high school students and 7% of middle school students were using some kind of tobacco product in 2016 – and e-cigarettes were the most commonly used product among those groups, according to an analysis from federal researchers.
, although combustible tobacco product use declined in both groups, said Ahmed Jamal, MD, of the Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Atlanta, and his associates. That was determined using data from the 2011-2016 National Youth Tobacco Surveys, which assessed tobacco use in the past 30 days by groups of middle school and high school students numbering from more than 17,000 to almost 25,000.
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High school boys had higher use of any tobacco product, two or more tobacco products, cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipe tobacco than did high school girls. The most commonly used tobacco product among non-Hispanic white (13.7%) and Hispanic high school students (10%) were e-cigarettes; cigars were the most commonly used tobacco product among non-Hispanic black high school students (9.5%).
Seven percent of middle school students had used any tobacco product within the past 30 days, and 3% had used two or more tobacco products. Similar to high school students, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among middle school students (4.3%), followed by cigarettes (2%), cigars (2%), smokeless tobacco (2%), hookahs (2%), pipe tobacco (0.7%), and bidis (0.3%).
Use of any tobacco product among middle school boys was 8.3%, and among middle school girls use was 6%. Hispanic middle school students reported higher use of any tobacco product, were more likely to use two or more tobacco products, and said they used hookahs more often than did non-Hispanic white middle school students.
Looking at the changes from 2011 to 2016, current use of any tobacco product did not change significantly among high school students (falling from 24% to 20%), but there was a reduction in current use of any combustible tobacco product (22%-14%) and in use of two or more tobacco products (12%-9.6%) over this time period.
By product type, there were increases in current use of e-cigarettes (from 1.5% to 11.3%) and hookahs (from 4.1% to 4.8%) among high school students, as well as decreases in current use of cigarettes (from 16% to 8%), cigars (from 12% to 8%), smokeless tobacco (from 8% to 6%), pipe tobacco (from 4% to 1%), and bidis (from 2% to 0.5%).
Among middle school students during 2011-2016, there was a rise in current use of e-cigarettes (from 0.6% to 4%), and in current use of hookahs (from 1% to 2%). There was a drop in current use of any combustible tobacco products (from 6% to 4%), cigarettes (from 4% to 2%), cigars (from 3.5% to 2.2%), and pipe tobacco (from 2% to 0.7%).
“Since February 2014, the Food and Drug Administration’s first national tobacco public education campaign, the Real Cost, has broadcasted tobacco education advertising designed for youths aged 12-17 years; the campaign was associated with an estimated 348,398 U.S. youths who did not initiate cigarette smoking during February 2014–March 2016,” the investigators said. “Continued implementation of these strategies can help prevent and further reduce the use of all forms of tobacco product among U.S. youths.”
Read more in MMWR (2017 Jun 16;66[23]:597-603).