Learning Objectives: Describe the newest trends in U.S. college students' tobacco use, exposure to tobacco industry marketing, and support for tobacco control policies on their campuses.
Abstract: Young adults (aged 18-24 years) are the youngest legal targets of tobacco industry marketing, and one-third of them are in college. In 1998, the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Survey (CAS) alerted the tobacco control community to the alarming rise in prevalence of tobacco use among U.S. college students. This presentation will describe the newest findings of the 2001 Harvard CAS and review the findings of the 3 previous surveys (1993, 1997, 1999). Each cross-sectional survey includes a random sample of over 14,000 students attending one of 119 nationally-representative U.S. 4-year colleges. These surveys provide the single best tool for surveillance of tobacco use in this population. The surveys show a 28% increase in cigarette smoking between 1993 and 1997, no change in 1999, and a decline in tobacco use in 2001. The presentation will focus on the newest survey (2001), whose analysis is in progress. The 2001 survey included an expanded number of questions that permit understanding of college student smoking behavior in greater detail (e.g., characteristics of occasional and “social” smokers, degree of nicotine dependence and readiness to quit among smokers). It also provides new information about tobacco policy-related issues, such as (1) students’ support for tobacco control policies on campus, (2) the prevalence of smoke-free campus policies; (3) and students’ exposure to tobacco industry promotions in bars/clubs and on campus. The presentation will provide the most up-to-date information about the patterns of tobacco use in this large group of young adults.
2001 CAS talk.ppt (174.0 kb)
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