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October 13, 2000 Facts About: Youth Tobacco Surveillance United States, 1998-1999National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) was conducted September-October 1999 by the American Legacy Foundation in collaboration with the CDC Foundation and with technical assistance from the CDC. The NYTS report provides first-ever national data on the prevalence of current tobacco use among middle school students and documents the emergence of bidis and kreteks among middle and high school students. Approximately 15,000 students in grades 6 through 12 from about 131 public and private schools participated in the NYTS. A previous report focusing on tobacco use prevalence was published in the January 28, 2000 issue of the MMWR. State Youth Tobacco Surveys (YTS) Three states participated in the YTS in 1998 (Florida, Mississippi, and Texas) and 13 states in 1999 (Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas). The data from middle and high school students are organized around seven categories (prevalence of use, knowledge and attitudes, minors’ access to tobacco, media and advertising, smoking cessation, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, and school curriculum), which will assist states in designing, implementing and evaluating their comprehensive tobacco control program. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Programs States can use the NYTS and their YTS data to develop, monitor, and evaluate the elements of their comprehensive tobacco control programs as defined in the CDC’s Best Practices For Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. Best Practices provides states with recommended strategies and funding levels for effective programs to prevent and reduce tobacco use, eliminate the public’s exposure to secondhand smoke, and identify and eliminate disparities related to tobacco use and its effects among different population groups. There are nine components of comprehensive tobacco control programs of which six components can be measured using YTS data: surveillance and evaluation, community programs to reduce tobacco use, school programs, enforcement, countermarketing, and smoking cessation programs. NYTS results by comprehensive tobacco program category: Surveillance and Evaluation: Monitor tobacco-related behaviors, attitudes, outcomes and influences.
Community Programs: Seek to reduce tobacco use initiation, promote cessation, protect from environmental tobacco smoke and eliminate tobacco use disparities among populations.
School Programs: Critical to preventing tobacco use onset.
Enforcement: Deters the illegal sale of tobacco to minors.
Countermarketing: While tobacco advertising stimulates adult consumption and increases the risk of initiation among youth, countermarketing messages have a powerful influence on public support for tobacco use prevention.
Cessation: Successful cessation programs can produce a greater short-term public health benefit than any other element of a comprehensive tobacco control program. Data support the need for youth programs.
The full report will be available online, after 4 p.m. EST, at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/. |
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