Tobacco use during adolescence increases the risk for adverse health effects and lifelong nicotine addiction. Roughly 4.6 million middle and high school students were current users of any tobacco product (Neff et al., 2015). Smoking among adolescents is one of the most prominent issues today in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 3,900 teenagers will smoke their first cigarette today. Of these 3,900 roughly 25% of them will become regular daily smokers; half of these will ultimately die from their newfound habit. A decision seemed so insignificant could introduce problems that affect an entire lifetime. Choosing to pick up that first cigarette is something that can be extremely detrimental to a teenager. That first cigarette leads to the occasional one with some friends which then turns into a pack a week until that teen is smoking a pack a day.
The longitudinal prevalence trends of a first whole cigarette smoked before age 13 stratified by more than 2 demographic variables have not been extensively investigated. The published studies are either of lack of national sampling representation, small in sample size, cross-sectional design, or reported prevalence trends by only one or two demographic variables from participant’s grade, gender, or race/ethnicity.
This study was designed to describe the longitudinal prevalence trends of a first whole cigarette smoked before age 13 among nationally representative high school students and to compare them in the specific grades, genders, and major races/ethnicities.
Methods:
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) was established by the CDC to monitor tobacco use trends among adolescents. Data from nationally representative participants during 1991 and 2017 were analyzed. The 25-year trends were plotted using the sex-grade-race/ethnicity-specific prevalence rates.
Results:
Most of prevalence of FCS13 increased in 2017. Across 25 years, the FCS13 prevalence declined with a peak around 1995-1999, but increased among 12th grade White and Hispanic male between 2015-2017. African American females remain higher in prevalence rate than others in 9th to 12th grades. Hispanic males’ FCS13 are higher than White and African American. White females’ FCS13 are higher than others in 9th to 10th grade.
Conclusion:
Smoke history is one part of nursing care intervention and also the information to help clinical diagnosis. By identifiying high risk populations, advance practice nurses can intervene by providing smoking cessasion information and making a smoking cessasion plan. In addition, advance practice nurses can focus on high-risk populations by screening and provide professional nursing care.