Fact Sheet

Middle School Students

The 1999 National Youth Tobacco Survey conducted from September through October by the American Legacy Foundation, in a joint project with the CDC Foundation, estimates that about one in eight (12.8 percent) middle school students reported using some form of tobacco (cigarettes, smokeless, cigars, pipes, bidis, or kreteks) in the past month.

Current cigarette use among middle school students was 9.2 percent - 9.6 percent males and 8.8 percent for females.

The rate of smoking among middle school students by race/ethnic groups was relatively equal, with about one in ten African American (9.0 percent), white (8.8 percent) and Hispanic (11.0 percent) middle school students reporting smoking cigarettes in the past month.

Cigar use was the second most preferred tobacco product used in middle school, with 6.1 percent of students reporting smoking cigars in the past month. African American middle school students (8.8 percent) were significantly more likely to smoke cigars than white students (4.9 percent).

Current smokeless tobacco prevalence among middle school students was 2.7 percent - 4.2 percent for males and 1.3 percent for females.

Pipe tobacco use among middle school students was 2.4 percent - 3.5 percent for males and 1.4 percent for females.

Current use of novel tobacco products, such as bidis (or beedies) and kreteks (also called clove cigarettes) was 2.4 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, among middle school students. There was no statistically significant difference in bidis use among race/ethnic groups (1.8 percent for white), (2.8 percent for African American), and (3.5 percent for Hispanics) and kreteks use (1.7 percent for white), (1.7 percent for African American), and (2.1 percent for Hispanics) among middle school students.

High School Students

More than one-third (34.8 percent) of high school students reported using some form of tobacco in the past month.

More than a quarter (28.4 percent) of high school students were current cigarette smokers, with male and female students smoking at equal rates - 28.7 and 28.2 percent respectively.

Current cigarette smoking prevalence use by race/ethnic groups was higher among white high school students (32.8 percent) followed by Hispanic (25.8 percent) and African American (15.8 percent) students.

Cigar use among high school students was 15.3 percent. An estimated one in 5 male students (20.3 percent) had used cigars compared to about 1 in 10 female students (10.2 percent) in the past month.

Males (11.6 percent) were significantly more likely to use smokeless tobacco products than female (1.5 percent) high school students.

The use of bidis (5.0 percent) and kreteks (5.8 percent) among high school students nearly equaled the use of smokeless tobacco (6.6 percent).