Frequent Smoking among Mississippi Youth

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.

• 897 Mississippi public middle school students have smoked cigarettes on at least 20 of the past 30 days
• The prevalence of frequent smoking has decreased by 85% since 1998, leading to 4,931 fewer middle school students who are frequent smokers

• 9,687 Mississippi public high school students have smoked cigarettes on at least 20 of the past 30 days
• The prevalence of frequent smoking has decreased by 50% since 1998, leading to 9,824 fewer high school students who are frequent smokers