Current Tobacco Use Declining in U.S. Youth in 2024

FRIDAY, Oct. 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Tobacco use among U.S. youth continued to decline in 2024, according to a study published in the Oct. 17 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Ahmed Jamal, M.B.B.S., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey to determine tobacco product use among U.S. middle school (grades 6 to 8) and high school (grades 9 to 12) students.

The researchers found that in 2024, current (previous 30-day) use of any tobacco product was reported by 10.1 percent of high school students (representing 1.58 million students) and 5.4 percent of middle school students (representing 640,000 students). The most commonly reported tobacco products currently used were electronic cigarettes (5.9 percent), overall, followed by nicotine pouches (1.8 percent), cigarettes (1.4 percent), cigars (1.2 percent), smokeless tobacco (1.2 percent), other oral nicotine products (1.2 percent), heated tobacco products (0.8 percent), hookahs (0.7 percent), and pipe tobacco (0.5 percent). From 2023 to 2024, the estimated number of students who reported current use of any tobacco product decreased from 2.80 to 2.25 million students, while e-cigarette use decreased from 2.13 to 1.63 million students, which was driven by decreases in high school students.

“Tobacco use among youths has continued to decline; however, comprehensive and sustained implementation of evidence-based tobacco control strategies, including tobacco product regulation and enforcement, is needed to prevent and reduce all forms of youth tobacco product use,” the authors write.

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