CDC: US Cigarette Smoking Hits All-Time Low

Cigarette smoking in the United States reached an all-time low in 2018, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although cigarette smoking has declined in recent years, various new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, are now available in the US. In order to examine national estimates of tobacco product use, the CDC, Food and Drug Administration, and the National Cancer Institute analyzed data from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey.

In 2018, an estimated 19.7% of US adults reported current use of tobacco products, including 13.7% who used cigarettes, 3.9% who used cigars, 3.2% who used e0cigarettes, 2.4% who used smokeless tobacco, and 1.0% who used pipes.

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Further, during 2017-2018, the prevalence of e-cigarette and smokeless tobacco used increased from 2.8% to 3.2% and from 2.1% to 2.4%, respectively. No other significant changes in the use of tobacco products occurred.

However, during 2009-2018, significant increases in quit attempts, recent cessation, and quit ratio were all reported.

“The approximate two thirds decline in adult cigarette smoking prevalence that has occurred since 1965 represents a major public health success,” the authors wrote.

“Population-based tobacco control interventions…combined with barrier-free access to evidence-based cessation treatments, can both motivate persons who use tobacco products to try to quit and help them succeed in quitting.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Creamer MR, Wang TW, Babb S, et al. Tobacco product use and cessation indicators among adults — United States, 2018 [published online November 15, 2019). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68:1013–1019. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6845a2.