Smoking Continues to Decline
Among Delaware Students
Delaware's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program conducts a Youth Tobacco Survey in public middle and high schools on even-numbered years. The study is conducted for the program by the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies at the University of Delaware. Copies of the studies are available on the Center's Delaware Data website. Highlights from the 2004 report are provided below.
The Youth Tobacco Survey is a cooperative effort of the Delaware Division of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The survey was administered to 2,800 students from grades 6-12 in all 19 school districts.
- 30% of middle school students have tried cigarettes, down from 44% in 2000. The percentage of high school students who say they've tried cigarettes declined from 66% in 2000 to 59% in 2004.
- Among middle school students, the percentage of students who smoked during the past 30 days was 9% in 2004 -- down from 15% in 2000.
- Among high school students, the percentage of students who smoked during the past 30 days dropped from 27% in 2000 to 23% in 2004.
- Regular smoking among high school students is also decreasing. The percentage of students who smoked on 20 or more of the past 30 days decreased from 15% in 2000 to 9% in 2004.
- For high school students, African Americans are less likely to be current or lifetime users of cigarettes than Hispanics or whites. In the sample, 11% of African-American students were current smokers, compared to 22% of Hispanic students and 28% of white students.
Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data, which has been collected since 1995, also shows a drop in smoking among high school students.
Both the YRBS and the YTS are available on the Delaware Data website.
