Cigarette smoking among high school students has dropped to 15.7% – the lowest level recorded by the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced June 12.
The report shows a decrease from the 18.1% rate found in 2011 and continues a downward trend since the peak rate of 36.4% was recorded in 1997.
"That meets the Healthy People 2020 objective of under 16%, and that’s good news," Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director, said during a news conference today. "But we still face big challenges in reducing overall tobacco use."
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The report does not include data on e-cigarette use among high school students, although overall tobacco use is down, said Dr. Frieden.
While cigarette smoking is down, other nationwide surveys show increased use of hookah and e-cigarettes. Further, overall tobacco use (cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco) rates are at 22.4%, according to the report, also continuing a downward trend from 43.4% reported in 1997.
"While this particular report doesn’t have data on e-cigarette use among high school students, we know that use of e-cigarettes is skyrocketing, and we’re concerned about that," Dr. Frieden said. "We’re particularly concerned with e-cigarettes reglamorizing smoking traditional cigarettes and maybe making it more complicated to enforce smoke-free laws that protect all nonsmokers."
He noted that young people are highly vulnerable to social, environmental, and physical influences that encourage them to start smoking and "no kids should be exposed to advertising that glorifies the use of nicotine or be able to easily buy e-cigarettes because their sales have not been restricted."
The survey found that of teens who drive, 41% reported texting or e-mailing while driving.
Sex amongst teens is down, with 34% of respondents reporting they were sexually active (had sexual intercourse during the past 3 months prior to being surveyed) in 2013 vs. 38% in 1991. Among the sexually active, condom use declined to 59% in 2013 from 63% in 2003, after having increased in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The percentage of teens who are sexually active is "too high," Dr. Frieden said, but it is going in the right direction. However the trend in condom use "shows the need for continued efforts from parents, schools, and communities to educate and ensure that [teens] have the knowledge and skills they need to protect themselves from HIV, STDs, and teen pregnancy."
Soda consumption – defined as drinking 1 or more servings per day – declined from 34% in 2007 to 27% in 2013. But teens are spending more time in front of a computer, with high school students spending 3 or more hours per day on a PCs, laptops, tablets, or smartphones for non–school related activities, nearly doubling from 2003 (22%) to 2013 (41%).
"We are concerned by the amount of screen time. It cuts into time for physical activity," Dr. Frieden said. "It cuts into time for sleep. It cuts into time for interacting in a healthy way with friends and learning. It’s a trend that we’re noting and some of this is ... a shift from watching TV on the television to watching it on the computer screen, but it’s still a whole lot of time being inactive, and that is a concern."
Survey results are based on 13,583 usable questionnaires collected from 148 public and private schools nationwide, with surveys conducted during the spring of 2013.