(Press-News.org) Cigarette smoking remains the leading avoidable cause of premature death in the United States, accounting for approximately 500,000 deaths or 1 in 5 deaths annually. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, most adults who smoke cigarettes started before age 18, so preventing cigarette smoking in adolescents is important to reducing smoking in adults.
In a new study, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators explored overall trends in cigarette smoking among a large sample of U.S. adolescents in grades nine to 12 from 1991 to 2021. They also explored differences by gender as well as race/ethnicity.
Cigarette smoking measures included: ever tried cigarette smoking, which was defined as taking even one or two puffs; currently smoked cigarettes occasionally; currently smoked cigarettes frequently; and currently smoked cigarettes daily.
Results of the study, published in Ochsner Journal online ahead of print, show cigarette smoking in all usage categories (ever, occasional, frequent and daily) significantly decreased from 1991 to 2021.
Among the study findings:
Ever use cigarettes significantly decreased from 70.1 percent in 1991 to 17.8 percent in 2021, an almost fourfold decline.
Occasional cigarette use significantly decreased from 27.5 percent in 1991 to 3.8 percent in 2021, a greater than sevenfold decline.
Frequent cigarette use significantly decreased from 12.7 percent to 0.7 percent, a greater than eighteenfold decline.
Daily cigarette use declined from 9.8 percent in 1991 to 0.6 percent in 2021, a greater than sixteenfold decline.
Interestingly, while all grades experienced a significant decline in cigarette use, 12th graders consistenly reported the highest percentage of occasional smokers compared to the other school grades, even in 2021. This finding suggests that while smoking has decreased across all age groups, older adolescents might still be more prone to experimenting with cigarettes than their younger counterparts.
“The substantial decrease in cigarette use among U.S. adolescents spanning three decades is an encouraging public health achievement,” said Panagiota “Yiota” Kitsantas, Ph.D., senior author, professor and chair, Department of Population Health and Social Medicine, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine. “This decrease underscores the importance of continued vigilance, research, and intervention to further reduce tobacco use and its associated harms.”
Overall, inequalities in cigarette use among adolescents by gender have been present for decades. However, by 2021, discrepancies in smoking cigarettes by gender were diminished.
With respect to race/ethnicity, by 2021, the decreases in cigarette consumption were even more pronounced among Black and Asian adolescents, while the rates among whites and Hispanic/Latino youth remained higher but were still significantly lower than the 1997 rates.
“These results show reassuring trends but they also suggest residual clinical and public health challenges that will require targeted interventions,” said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH, co-author, First Sir Richard Doll Professor of Medicine and senior academic advisor, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine. “Quitting smoking significantly reduces risks of cardiovascular disease beginning within a matter of months and reaching the non-smoker status within a few years, even among older adults. However, for lung and other cancers, reductions do not even begin to emerge for years after quitting, and even after 10 years, remain midway between the continuing smoker and lifelong nonsmoker. Thus, for reducing cardiovascular disease risks it’s never too late to quit, but to reduce risks of cancer, it’s never too early.”
Study co-authors are Maria Mejia, M.D., first author and an associate professor, Baylor College of Medicine; Robert S. Levine, M.D., professor of family and community medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, and an affiliate professor, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine; and Adedamola Adele, a recent biomedical science graduate, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine.
In 2014, Hennekens received the prestigious Ochsner Award for Smoking and Health for reducing premature deaths from cigarettes presented by the American College of Chest Physicians. Hennekens joined other luminaries who previously received the award, including his mentors and colleagues, Sir Richard Doll and Sir Richard Peto.
- FAU -
About the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine:
FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine is one of approximately 156 accredited medical schools in the U.S. The college was launched in 2010, when the Florida Board of Governors made a landmark decision authorizing FAU to award the M.D. degree. After receiving approval from the Florida legislature and the governor, it became the 134th allopathic medical school in North America. With more than 70 full and part-time faculty and more than 1,300 affiliate faculty, the college matriculates 64 medical students each year and has been nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum. To further FAU’s commitment to increase much needed medical residency positions in Palm Beach County and to ensure that the region will continue to have an adequate and well-trained physician workforce, the FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Consortium for Graduate Medical Education (GME) was formed in fall 2011 with five leading hospitals in Palm Beach County. The Consortium currently has five Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited residencies including internal medicine, surgery, emergency medicine, psychiatry, and neurology.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
END
Many edible, medicinal, and poisonous mushrooms that we are familiar with belong to the order Agaricales, which is a group of fungi with important economic and ecological value. Understanding the phylogenetic relationships of Agaricales can help us to know their evolutionary history and diversity, as well as their interactions with other organisms. Moreover, the phylogenetic framework of Agaricales can provide a basis for conserving biodiversity, such as measuring phylogenetic diversity and assessing the uniqueness and importance of different species.
Previous studies divided Agaricales into 8 suborders and 46 families, but the systematic position and phylogenetic relationship ...
Québec, January 10, 2024 – In people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), changes in neurons appear to activate immune cells. Lowering the inflammation could reduce the symptoms of the disease, according to a study led by Chantelle Sephton, a professor at Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine.
ALS is caused by the loss of upper motor neurons, located in the brain, and lower motor neurons, which extend from the spinal cord to the muscles. Using a genetically modified mouse ...
The frigid Arctic Ocean is far removed from the places most people live, but even so, “forever chemicals” reach this remote landscape. Now, research in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters suggests that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) won't stay there indefinitely. Instead, they are transported in a feedback loop, with the Arctic Ocean potentially exporting as many PFAS to the North Atlantic Ocean as it receives, circulating the compounds around the world.
To ...
Trailblazing engineer Ashok Veeraraghavan, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). He was chosen for his revolutionary imaging technology that seeks to make the invisible visible. View a video on Dr. Veeraraghavan's groundbreaking research here.
Imagine taking a pristine picture through fog, smoke and rain. Imagine taking interior images of the human body through skin, bone ...
Forward-thinking biochemist Vincent Tagliabracci, Ph.D., Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Biological Sciences from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). He was chosen for his potentially life-saving research in understanding how enzymes work. View a video on Dr. Tagliabracci's groundbreaking research here.
Dr. Tagliabracci and his team at UT Southwestern Medical Center have shined a new light on an array of physiological processes that rely on enzymes called protein kinases (PKs) and their biological cousins called ...
A worldwide leader in nanoporous materials research, Shengqian Ma, Ph.D., Professor and Welch Chair in Chemistry, the University of North Texas, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Physical Sciences from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). He was chosen for his innovative work in the field of decontamination. View a video on Dr. Ma's groundbreaking research here.
In a time of growing concern for the Earth and humanity’s ecosystem, Dr. Ma’s work could have an incredibly important impact on environmental and energy sustainability. His research was primarily ...
A true pioneer in space, robotics engineer Kimberly A. Hambuchen, Ph.D., Deputy Chief, Software, Robotics and Simulation Division at NASA Johnson Space Center, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Technology Innovation from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). She was chosen for her seminal research in developing new methods for making robots more autonomous and usable by humans across a time delay. View a video on Dr. Hambuchen's groundbreaking research here.
Dr. Hambuchen’s research focuses on human-robot ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Teens from larger families have poorer mental health than those with fewer siblings, according to a large analysis of children in the United States and China.
The details of the pattern vary depending on factors such as the spacing of sibling ages and the age of the siblings.
But the fact that the overall pattern was found in both countries is striking, said Doug Downey, lead author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.
“Our results couldn’t have been easily predicted before we did the study,” Downey said.
“Other studies have shown that having more siblings ...
The origin of the vertebrate skull is a topic of much debate among evolutionary biologists. Some believe that the vertebrate head has developed as a result of modification of the segmental elements of the trunk, such as the vertebrae and somites. On the other hand, others believe that the vertebrate head has evolved as a new, unsegment body part, unrelated to other widely observed embryonic segments somites. Interestingly, previous studies on embryos have revealed the presence of some vestiges of somites ...
Procambarus clarkii is a crustacean species native to American freshwater bodies. Brought to Japan in the 1920s as a feed for frogs, this crustacean has slowly taken over the Japanese freshwaters by predation and propagation. In fact, in 2023, the red-swamp crayfish was designated as an invasive alien species by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
One way to control the growth in population of red-swamp crayfish and the accompanying crisis is to capture the red-swamp crayfish in their reproductive ...
