U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce current tobacco use in adolescents — TU‑04 Data Methodology and Measurement

This objective is a Leading Health Indicator (LHI). Learn about LHIs.

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), CDC/NCCDPHP

Baseline: 18.3 percent of students in grades 6 through 12 used cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookah, pipe tobacco, and/or bidis in the past 30 days in 2018

Target: 11.3 percent

Numerator
Number of students in grades 6 through 12 who report having used any tobacco product (i.e. cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco [chewing tobacco/snuff/dip, snus, and dissolvable tobacco], hookah, pipe tobacco, and/or bidis) in the past 30 days.
Denominator
Number of students in grades 6 through 12.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.20.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were evaluated for this objective, but it was not possible to project a target because the trend was moving away from the desired direction. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.2. This method was used because of new policies and regulations that are aimed to reduce tobacco use among youth.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey:

Numerator:
During the past 30 days, on how many days did you smoke cigarettes?
  1. 0 days
  2. 1 or 2 days
  3. 3 to 5 days
  4. 6 to 9 days
  5. 10 to 19 days
  6. 20 to 29 days
  7. All 30 days
During the past 30 days, on how many days did you smoke cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars?
  1. 0 days
  2. 1 or 2 days
  3. 3 to 5 days
  4. 6 to 9 days
  5. 10 to 19 days
  6. 20 to 29 days
  7. All 30 days
During the past 30 days, on how many days did you use chewing tobacco, snuff, or dip?
  1. 0 days
  2. 1 or 2 days
  3. 3 to 5 days
  4. 6 to 9 days
  5. 10 to 19 days
  6. 20 to 29 days
  7. All 30 days
During the past 30 days, on how many days did you use e-cigarettes?
  1. 0 days
  2. 1 or 2 days
  3. 3 to 5 days
  4. 6 to 9 days
  5. 10 to 19 days
  6. 20 to 29 days
  7. All 30 days
During the past 30 days, on how many days did you smoke tobacco in a hookah or waterpipe?
  1. 0 days
  2. 1 or 2 days
  3. 3 to 5 days
  4. 6 to 9 days
  5. 10 to 19 days
  6. 20 to 29 days
  7. All 30 days
In the past 30 days, which of the following products have you used on at least one day? (Select one or more)
  1. Roll-your-own cigarettes
  2. Pipes filled with tobacco (not waterpipe)
  3. Snus, such as Camel, Marlboro, or General Snus
  4. Dissolvable tobacco products such as Ariva, Stonewall, Camel orbs, Camel sticks, Marlboro sticks, or Camel strips
  5. Bidis (small brown cigarettes wrapped in a leaf)
  6. I have not used any of the products listed above in the past 30 days

Methodology notes

Use of any tobacco product is defined as use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco [chewing tobacco/snuff/dip, snus, and dissolvable tobacco], hookah, pipe tobacco, and/or bidis on at least one day in the past 30 days.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from Healthy People 2020 objective TU-2.1 in that objective TU-2.1 used data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) to track adolescent use of cigarettes, chewing tobacco, snuff, or cigars, while this objective uses data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) to track adolescent use of any tobacco products (this includes cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookah, pipe tobacco, and/or bidis.).
Trend issues
From 1999 to 2018, the NYTS was conducted in schools as a self-administered, paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Beginning in 2019, the NYTS switched to being conducted as a self-administered, electronic survey. No mode effect was found for current use of tobacco product estimates in a pilot of the survey changes. In 2020, the data collection timeline was truncated due to widespread school closures due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. Survey administration was due to run from January 16, 2020 through May 15, 2020 but was ended early on March 16, 2020 due to widespread school closures. A weighting factor was applied to each student record to adjust for nonresponse and for varying probabilities of selection. Weights were adjusted to ensure that the weighted proportions of students in each grade matched national population proportions.

1. Effect size h=0.2 was chosen to correspond with 20% improvement from a baseline of 50%.