Latest from the 2010 Youth Tobacco Survey

Results are in from the 2010 Mississippi Youth Tobacco Survey. In the public middle schools, we had a 70% response rate with 1644 completed surveys; and in the public high schools, we had a 74% response rate with 1789 completed surveys.

Overall, rates of tobacco use remained steady. The state has experienced substantial decreases in tobacco use during the early years of our tobacco control programs, and these decreases have been sustained over the past two years. There were no statistically significant increases or decreases in initiation form 2009 to 2010; however, there have been substantial and statistically significant decrease in initiation of cigarette smoking from 1998 to 2010.


Today's blog will focus on initiation of tobacco use.

• 26,449 Mississippi public middle school students have tried at least one cigarette
• The prevalence of having ever tried smoking has decreased by 57% since 1998, leading to 34,406 fewer middle school students who have tried smoking
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• 69,857 Mississippi public high school students have tried at least one cigarette
• The prevalence of having ever tried smoking has decreased by 34% since 1998, leading to 33,291 fewer high school students who have tried smoking