Cigarette Smoking Increases Significantly Among College Students

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), cigarette smoking among college students increased 28 percent between 1993 and 1997. This increase included all student demographic groups (age, sex, race/ethnicity, year in school). In a 1997 survey of 14,251 students, smoking prevalence was higher in whites than blacks or Asians, higher in freshmen, sophomores, and juniors than seniors and fifth-year students, higher at public and residential schools than private and commuter schools, and higher at schools in the northeast, north central, and south regions than in the west. College students, who are exposed to more information on the health effects of smoking than most groups, have been considered to be the most resistant group to smoking.

These findings should be cause for concern for those interested in reducing tobacco use among young people. The national debate on smoking policies has been focused mainly on youth younger than 18, the age at which nearly all smoking starts. With this new data, prevention efforts should now be expanded to include college students. Efforts to keep occasional smokers from becoming regular smokers and efforts to increase the success rate of those trying to quit could be much more effective if coupled with environmental and policy changes that discourage tobacco use and reinforce a message that smoking is not the norm. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, accounting for over 400,000 deaths per year.

(Source: Science New Update, November 18, 1998)