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CDC report on smoking behaviors among adolescents may influence control strategies

The findings of a CDC analysis on the prevalence of smoking and cigarette purchases by adolescents have the potential to influence tobacco control strategies on reducing and preventing the advertisement and selling of tobacco products to teenagers.

“Tobacco use is a leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality, with nearly 6 million deaths caused by tobacco use worldwide every year,” Denise D’Angelo, MPH, of the Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC, and colleagues wrote. “Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use in most countries, and the majority of adult smokers initiate smoking before age 18 years.”

D’Angelo and colleagues used the Global Youth Tobacco Survey to collect data on smoking behaviors among adolescents aged 13 to 15 years from 45 countries. Behaviors analyzed included incidences of current cigarette smoking, where cigarettes were being purchased, and type of cigarette purchases made.

Overall, results showed that the current cigarette smoking prevalence median was 6.8% among the total study population. The percentage varied from 1.7% in Kazakhstan to 28.9% in Timor-Leste. The median prevalence was higher among boys than girls (9.7% vs. 3.5%).

In 26 of the 45 countries, more than 50% of adolescent smokers reported buying cigarettes from a retail outlet (store, street vendor, or kiosk) within the past 30 days. The highest prevalence was in Montenegro at 95.1%, and the lowest was in Latvia at 14.9%.

Data indicated that in most of the participating countries within the African and South-East Asian Regions, approximately 40% of adolescents who currently smoked purchased cigarettes individually.

Conversely, in all but one country assessed in the European Region, approximately 50% of cigarette smokers bought cigarettes in packs.

“These findings could be used by countries to inform tobacco control strategies in the retail environment to reduce and prevent marketing and sales of tobacco products to youths,” D’Angelo and colleagues concluded. “[In addition], tobacco control and prevention policies aimed at youth oriented marketing and sales of tobacco products to youth can [further] help to reduce youths’ initiation and use of tobacco products and reverse the global tobacco epidemic.” – by Alaina Tedesco

Disclosure: The researchers do not report any relevant financial disclosures.