From Vital and Heatth Statistics of the CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROLAND PREVENTION/NationalCenter for Health Statistics

Cigarette smoking almost always begins in the adolescent years and smoking at early ages increases the risk of becoming ill or dying from causes attributable to smoking. This report uses data from the 1992 National Health Interview Survey of Youth Risk Behavior and presents prevalence estimates for selected unhealthy behaviors among adolescents in the United States according to smoking status. These unhealthy behaviors, consistent with earlier studies, include drinking alcohol; using marijuana, cocaine, and smokeless tobacco; carrying weapons; physical fighting; sexual inte-course; failure to use a seat belt; and lack of exercise. Findings indicated that 29 percent of male youth (12 to 21 years of age) and 26 percent of female youth were current smokers, 3 percent of both sexes were former smokers, 28 percent of males and 30 percent of females had experimented with cigarettes but never smoked regularly, and 40 percent had never smoked. Each of the unhealthy behaviors is discussed in relation to smoking. In almost all cases, current smokers had the highest and "never s-lokers" had the lowest rate of other risk behaviors. The differences were particularly striking for use of other addictive substances such as alcohol, marijuana, and smokeless tobacco: current smokers were 3-17 times more likely than adolescents who had never smoked to have used these other substances in the previous 30 days. The data indica e that youth who engage in some high risk behaviors are likely to be engaging in others, and findings suggest that interventions targeting multiple high risk behaviors may be more effective in getting youth to adopt healthy behaviors than programs targeting s:ngle behaviors. Tables of data are included. (Contains 17 references.) (ND) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***************************************'A***i.A:*****AAAAA:.AA:. * Number 263 April 24, 1995