The Centers for Disease Control recently published results from its 2020 National Health Interview Survey on the subject of “Tobacco Product Use Among Adults – United States, 2019.”1
The CDC summarized the survey’s findings as follows:
“In 2019, approximately 20.8% of U.S. adults (50.6 million) currently used any tobacco product. Cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among adults, and e-cigarettes were the most commonly used noncigarette tobacco product (4.5%). The highest prevalence of e-cigarette use was among smokers aged 18–24 years (9.3%), with over half (56.0%) of these young adults reporting that they had never smoked cigarettes.”
Regarding the implications of the findings for public health practice, the CDC concluded:
“The implementation of comprehensive, evidence-based, population-level interventions in coordination with regulation of tobacco products, can reduce tobacco-related disease, disparities, and death in the United States. These evidence-based, population-level strategies include implementation of tobacco price increases, comprehensive smoke-free policies, high-impact antitobacco media campaigns, and barrier-free cessation coverage. As part of a comprehensive approach, targeted interventions are also warranted to reach subpopulations with the highest prevalence of use, which might vary by tobacco product type.”
The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, entered into between 52 states and other jurisdictions and cigarette manufacturers accounting for the great majority of the cigarette sales in the United States, furthers several of these strategies by imposing payment obligations on the manufacturers that raise their cigarette prices; prohibiting or restricting marketing and advertising methods previously employed by the manufacturers; providing funding for states to carry out media campaigns and smoking cessation programs; and by establishing and funding the Truth Initiative, “America’s largest nonprofit public health organization dedicated to a future where tobacco and nicotine addiction are things of the past.”
Additional Resources
- Cornelius ME, Wang TW, Jamal A, Loretan CG, Neff LJ. Tobacco Product Use Among Adults — United States, 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:1736–1742. DOI: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6946a4.htm?s_cid=mm6946a4_w [↩]
