The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #53152

Hylan D. Shoob, PhD, MSPH¹, Youjie Huang, MD, MPH, DrPH², Manxia Wu, MD, MSPH², and Natalie Scruggs, MSPH². (1) Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina School of Public Health, P.O. Box 50925, Columbia, SC 29250, 803-252-4608, ARAD1@AOL.COM, (2) Bureau of Epidemiology, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, 1800 St. Julian Place, Suite 406, Columbia, SC 29204

Problem/Objective The roots of chronic diseases are based in a number of health-damaging behaviors practiced by people every day such as: Lack of PA, Poor Nutrition, Tobacco Use, and Underuse of Prevention Strategies. Method SC has conducted the BRFSS since 1984. BRFSS is a series of monthly telephone surveys of randomly selected SC adults, age 18 and older. SC households are selected by stratified random sampling. The survey instrument, designed by the CDC and administered in most states, obtains information about the respondent’s health risk behaviors. Results 25% of SC adults are current smokers. Males reported much more current smoking than females, and whites reported more smoking than blacks. 12.7% of BF and 24.9% of WF were current smokers. Current smoking has dropped from 30.3% in 1985 to 24.9% in 2000. 44% of smokers had tried to quit smoking for at least one day within the previous year. 45% of female participants tried to quit smoking, compared to 43.2% of males. Blacks reported more attempts to quit smoking than whites by 5%. WM (41.6%) reported the lowest percentage of attempts to quit smoking of all race-gender groups, while BF, at 48.1%, reported the highest. Discussion Smoking causes many health problems such as lung and other types of cancers, CVD, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Tobacco use causes more than 430,000 deaths and costs $50-$70 billion annually in medical expenses. Over the past 20 years, tobacco use has remained the single most preventable cause of death and disease in the US.

Learning Objectives:

• The participants will understand the prevalence of tobacco use among South Carolina adults and in doing so will see the enormous problem of increasing tobacco use in South Carolina.

Keywords: Tobacco, Adult Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.