U.S. Adult Smoking Rate Falls to New Low
U.S. Adult Smoking Rate Falls to New Low
CDC says less than 17 percent are lighting up, but big gap remains between well-off and poor
THURSDAY, Nov. 12, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Fewer Americans smoke than a decade ago, and those who still light up do so less often, federal health officials reported Thursday.
Less than 17 percent of adults said they smoked in 2014, down from nearly 21 percent in 2005, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report reveals.
And the average number of cigarettes smoked daily fell from nearly 17 to fewer than 14 by 2014.
Smoking still kills half a million Americans every year, the report found. But the findings still suggest that public health efforts to rein in smoking are yielding results.
"There's a lot of encouraging news in these most recent national smoking estimates," said lead investigator Brian King, deputy director for research translation at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health in Atlanta. "But big socio-economic disparities remain, and are fairly consistent with what we've seen in the past."
For example, investigators found that smoking rates among uninsured adults and poor Medicaid recipients were twice that of people with private insurance or seniors on Medicare.
Those with only a high-school degree and non-whites also were far more likely to smoke than better-educated adults and/or whites, the researchers found.
Investigators found that adult smoking fell a full percentage point -- to 16.8 percent -- between 2013 and 2014 alone.
And among the privately insured and those with Medicare, rates were as low as 12 percent to 13 percent, the report found.
The latest numbers appear in the Nov. 13 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Although the survey focused exclusively on adults, King said other recent data suggest that a little more than 9 percent of U.S. high school students smoke cigarettes.
Overall, the broad decline is considered progress toward achieving the national "Healthy People 2020" goal of bringing smoking rates down to 12 percent or less within five years.
U.S. Adult Smoking Rate Falls to New Low
CDC says less than 17 percent are lighting up, but big gap remains between well-off and poor
THURSDAY, Nov. 12, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Fewer Americans smoke than a decade ago, and those who still light up do so less often, federal health officials reported Thursday.
Less than 17 percent of adults said they smoked in 2014, down from nearly 21 percent in 2005, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report reveals.
And the average number of cigarettes smoked daily fell from nearly 17 to fewer than 14 by 2014.
Smoking still kills half a million Americans every year, the report found. But the findings still suggest that public health efforts to rein in smoking are yielding results.
"There's a lot of encouraging news in these most recent national smoking estimates," said lead investigator Brian King, deputy director for research translation at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health in Atlanta. "But big socio-economic disparities remain, and are fairly consistent with what we've seen in the past."
For example, investigators found that smoking rates among uninsured adults and poor Medicaid recipients were twice that of people with private insurance or seniors on Medicare.
Those with only a high-school degree and non-whites also were far more likely to smoke than better-educated adults and/or whites, the researchers found.
Investigators found that adult smoking fell a full percentage point -- to 16.8 percent -- between 2013 and 2014 alone.
And among the privately insured and those with Medicare, rates were as low as 12 percent to 13 percent, the report found.
The latest numbers appear in the Nov. 13 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Although the survey focused exclusively on adults, King said other recent data suggest that a little more than 9 percent of U.S. high school students smoke cigarettes.
Overall, the broad decline is considered progress toward achieving the national "Healthy People 2020" goal of bringing smoking rates down to 12 percent or less within five years.
