Trends in Current Tobacco Use Among Mississippi Public High School Students

Objective: To examine changes in current tobacco use among Mississippi public high school students.

Setting: Cigarette smoking represents a significant health problem and tobacco has been identified as causing more preventable diseases and premature deaths than any other drug. Youth tobacco use predicts a range of early adult social and health problems. Trends analysis on youth tobacco use will help the State Tobacco Control Program to re-examine activities and intervention strategies among adolescents.

Methods: We combined seven weighted Mississippi Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (1993-2007). Topics of current cigarettes, current smokeless tobacco use, and current cigars use were selected for investigation. Overall temporal changes were analyzed by using SUDAAN logistic regression that assessed linear and quadratic time effects.

Results: During 1993-2007, the prevalence of current cigarettes and current cigars use among Mississippi public high school students showed a significant linear decrease (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0017, respectively). A significant quadratic trend was also detected for current cigarettes (p = 0.0001), indicating that it increased during 1993-1995, then leveled off during 1997-1999, and then sharply declined in 2001 but increased slightly in 2003; it then declined to 2007. Neither linear- nor quadratic trend were observed for current smokeless tobacco use.

Conclusion: The activities aimed to decrease cigarettes and cigars use among adolescents were effective. Programs to target youth smokeless tobacco use are needed in order to decrease the overall tobacco use in the state.