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HEALTH STATUS >
HEALTH BEHAVIORS CIGARETTE SMOKING Cigarette smoking is associated with numerous chronic illnesses
and premature death. In 2003, 60.4 million people aged 12 and older
smoked cigarettes within the past month. Nearly one out of every
four adult women smoked cigarettes in the past month, representing
26.6 million women aged 18 or older. For both women and men, smoking
cigarettes often begins in adolescence and increases in prevalence
among the young adult population. Among females, in 2003 the rate
of cigarette smoking was 12.5 percent among 12-17 year-olds, 36.2
percent among 18-25 year-olds, and 22.1 percent among those aged
26 and older. While adult women (aged 18 and older) were less likely
than men to have smoked in the previous month (24.1 percent compared
to 30.1 percent), smoking was slightly more common among adolescent
girls than among their male peers (12.5 percent of females compared
to 11.9 percent of males in the 12-17 age group). While women in
all racial and ethnic groups are less likely to smoke while they
are pregnant, 25.0 percent of non-Hispanic White women smoked during
pregnancy, more than 3 times the rate among Hispanic women.
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