Learning Objectives: Describe the importance of conducting the Youth Tobacco Survey more than once.
Abstract:
Problem/Objective: Tobacco use among Pennsylvania students compares cigarette, cigar, pipe, bidi, and smokeless tobacco usage among students (grades 6-12) in the baseline survey and in the second survey.
Methods: The self-reported information was collected in the Pennsylvania Youth Tobacco Survey (YTS) during the 2000-2001 school year and during the 2002-2003 school year.
Results: 19,591 students in grades 6-12 in public middle and high schools participated in the baseline survey. The baseline survey findings reflect usable responses from 16,834 of these students. Similar numbers are expected in the second survey. According to the baseline survey, the percent of public middle school students who currently smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and bidis, and use smokeless tobacco, respectively, is 13.1%, 6.3%, 2.3%, 3.0%, and 4.4%; the percent of public high school students who currently smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and bidis, and use smokeless tobacco, respectively, is 27.6%, 12.4%, 3.8%, 5.7%, and 6.9%. This usage will be compared to usage in the second survey.
Conclusions: Student participation in the YTS should strengthen the efforts of statewide and community-based tobacco prevention and cessation initiatives toward reducing the percent of youth who become regular smokers every day. Overall, the rates of tobacco use reported by students in the baseline survey appear to be similar to those reported by students in YTSs conducted by other states and by other studies among students in Pennsylvania. The baseline findings show that tobacco use is an important public health problem among Pennsylvania middle and high school students in grades 6-12.
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