A shocking new study from the CDC reveals that Americans are changing the way they use tobacco on a huge scale.
As we reported earlier, the CDC has just issued a study outlining current trends in American adults’ smoking habits. According to a report from UPI, while certain groups are still smoking in great amounts, the country has seen an overall decline in smoking over the past few decades.
Cigarette use is declining rapidly in the United States, and the data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week shows exactly where the decreases are coming from. The center reported that the level of American adult smokers dropped to just 17 percent in 2014, a 20 percent drop from 2005 levels.
The recent figure is the lowest on record since the CDC began collecting data about smoking in the United States. While fewer people are smoking in the first place, smokers are easing up as well; the average daily count for a regular smoker has dropped to 13.8 cigarettes from a 2005 level of 16.7.
Smoking has been steadily declining in the U.S. over the past five decades. In 1965, the CDC reports that 42.4 percent of American adults smoked cigarettes. Tobacco companies launched campaigns to doubt the medical community’s assertion that smoking was harmful, but more and more people have been giving up the habit. Despite the steady drop, the few remaining smokers are proving to be the most difficult to help quit.
Poorer Americans have a much harder time giving up tobacco than those with greater access to healthcare. About 13 percent of people who have private health insurance smoke cigarettes, while 29 percent of people on Medicaid are smokers. People who smoke make up 27.9 percent of the uninsured population in the country.
About 26.3 percent of adults living under the federal poverty line were smokers in 2014. Education also played a major factor in the data – 43 percent of people with a general education development certificate, or GED, smoked tobacco.
Quitting smoking can be extremely difficult. Medicaid programs in all 50 states offer at least some access to quitting treatments, but only nine states offer individual and group counseling, as well as access to the cessation medications approved by the FDA.
A press release from the CDC outlining the most recent smoking numbers in the country can be found here.
Daniel J. Brown
Daniel J. Brown (Editor-in-Chief) is a recently retired data analyst who gets a kick out of reading and writing the news. He enjoys good music, great food, and sports, with a slant towards Southern college football, basketball and professional baseball.