A Secondary Analysis of Smoking Among Rural and Urban Youth Using the MTF Data Set

• Published in: The Journal of school health Vol. 67; no. 9; pp. 372 - 375
• Main Authors: Sarvela, Paul D., Cronk, Christine E., Isberner, Fred R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-11-1997; American School Health Association
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; African Americans - statistics & numerical data; Attitude to Health; Behavior; Black Students; Children & youth; Comparative studies; Data Analysis; Data Collection; Demographic aspects; Drug Use; European Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data; Female; Females; High School Seniors; High School Students; High Schools; Humans; Item Sampling; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Males; Monitoring the Future; Nursing; Prevalence; Probability; Racial Differences; Random Allocation; Registries; Research Design; Research Projects; Risk Factors; Risk Taking Behavior; Rural areas; Rural Population - statistics & numerical data; Rural Youth; Sampling; Sampling Studies; Sex Differences; Sex Distribution; Smoking; Smoking - epidemiology; Smoking and youth; Student Behavior; Tobacco; United States - epidemiology; Urban areas; Urban Population - statistics & numerical data; Urban Youth; Whites; Youth smoking; United States
• ISSN: 0022-4391; 1746-1561
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1997.tb07178.x

This paper compares rural and urban youth cigarette‐smoking behavior using the Monitoring the Future data set, a national, probability‐based, multi‐stage sample design. Cigarette smoking was examined by region, race, and gender over time. Results indicated that rural White males smoked more ofen (30‐day prevalence of 34%) than any other group. Urban Black males smoked the least (10%). Urban White females smoked more (30‐day prevalence of 33%) than urban Black females (7%). In general, rural and urban Whites reported smoking at significantly higher rates than rural and urban Blacks. Smoking rates declined steadily for both rural and urban Black females and urban Black males over the study period. These data document distinctive patterns of tobacco use among the nation's youth, which can be used by program planners for specific targeted interventions.