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70% of students who use tobacco opt for flavored products

About 70% of middle and high school students who acknowledged using a tobacco product in the past month used at least one flavored product during that time period, according to study results published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“Sustained efforts to implement proven tobacco control policies and strategies are needed to prevent all forms of tobacco use, including flavored tobacco products, among U.S. youths,” Catherine G. Corey, MSPH, of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, and colleagues wrote. “Additional strategies that can reduce youth tobacco use include increasing the price of tobacco products, adopting comprehensive smoke-free laws, implementing advertising and promotion restrictions and national public education media campaigns, and raising the minimum age of purchase for all tobacco products to age 21 years.”

Corey and colleagues used data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) to determine the prevalence of tobacco product use among middle school and high school students within the previous 30 days. Evaluated products included hookah tobacco, flavored e-cigarette, cigar, pipe tobacco or smokeless tobacco products, as well as and menthol cigarettes.

Researchers determined 3.26 million middle and high school students had used a flavored tobacco product within the previous 30 days. This equated to 70% of all students with smoking habits.

Results showed 1.58 million students used a flavored e-cigarette within the previous 30 days, whereas 1.02 million had used flavored hookah tobacco and 910,000 had used a flavored cigar.

Corey and colleagues determined nearly 18% of high school students used at least one flavored tobacco product within the previous 30 days, and only 5.8% reported exclusively using non-flavored products.

The most frequently used flavored tobacco products among high school students were e-cigarettes (8.8%), hookah (6%), cigars (5.3%), menthol cigarettes (5%), smokeless tobacco (4.1%) and pipes (0.7%).

“Given the popularity of flavored tobacco products among youth, it’s critical to address flavorings in all tobacco products,” Brian King, PhD, deputy director for research translation in CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a press release. “Efforts to curb the availability and use of flavored tobacco products could help reduce overall rates of tobacco use among our nation’s youth.” – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.