Following a sharp increase in promotional activities by manufacturers, cigar sales in the United States have increased by almost 50 percent since 1993. A core element of cigar promotion was the linkage of cigar smoking to a successful lifestyle and the featuring of highly visible women. Prior to the early 1990s, cigar use was a behavior associated with older men, but these patterns have changed and cigar consumption has increased among younger men and among women. This rise in cigar use is evident in incidence data from the 1999 NHSDA. About 4.9 million people tried cigars for the first time in 1998. This translates to about 13,000 new cigar users per day and represents a threefold increase in cigar initiation since 1991. Men are more likely than women to be cigar smokers. Blacks are as likely to smoke cigars as whites but blacks smoke cigars more frequently than their white counterparts. For cigar smokers of all ages, 20.5 percent of blacks used cigars on 11 or more days in the month prior to survey compared to 14.2 percent of white and 16.3 percent of Hispanic cigar smokers. Among adolescents, more than 22 percent of black current cigar smokers used cigars on 11 or more days in the past month compared to about 9 percent of white cigar smokers. For young adults (18 to 25 year olds), 6.3 percent of white current cigar users smoked them on 11 or more days compared to 33.7 percent of black current cigar smokers. See N/A
Learning Objectives: 1. Session participants will be able to recognize the dramatically increased incidence of cigar initiation in the 1990's. 2. Participants will be able to identify higher risk populations for problematic cigar use. 3. Participants will be able to prioritize which age groups and racial/ethnic groups need targeted cigar prevention and intervention programs
Keywords: Tobacco, Ethnic Minorities
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: N/A
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.