Consequently, physicians and other health care providers are missing the opportunity to help adolescents understand the hazards and addictiveness of tobacco use. Those rates dropped to one in five for young people who never smoked and 1 in 10 for young people who never tried smokeless tobacco. Health care providers were much more likely to discuss tobacco use with young patients who were current or heavy users, a pattern similar to that found among adult patients. This study confirms previous research conducted in Kansas and Texas which documented successful smokeless tobacco purchase attempts by youth at rates of 15 percent and 59 percent, respectively. The results are based on a national 1992 household survey of 10,645 youths aged 12 to 21.
Tobacco use is listed as one of the risk-taking behaviors.
60 percent of the youth surveyed had smoked cigarettes and 25 percent were classified as current smokers. More than half of the youth had smoked an entire cigarette at least once, while another 10 percent reported taking a few puffs. Boys and girls experimented at similar rates, but males 18 to 21 were more likely than females of the same age to be current smokers. Attempts to quit smoking decreased with age. 14 percent of male smokers aged 18 to 21 and 8 percent of female smokers of the same age reported smoking before age 10.