Smoking Among Teenagers

CURRENT SMOKING AMONG TEENAGERS
Daniel Homn, Ph.D.

THE SURVEY on which I am reporting was done for the Public Health Service from late December 1967 through early February 1968 by the Chilton Research Services of Philadelphia. The figures are based on telephone interviews conducted as a representative sample of the 85 percent of the U.S. households which have telephone service. These figures are being augmented by personal interviews in households without telephones. Households without telephones tend to be either in rural areas or impoverished sections of the central city. I believe levels of smoking are lower than average in the country and higher than average in the central city. It is, therefore, unlikely that adding the personal interview sample, which is now being carried out, will alter the figures by more than 1 or 2 percentage points. The telephone sample consisted of 4,414 interviews conducted among approximately 315 boys and 315 girls at each single year of age from 12 through 18 (see table). A random selection of teenagers was made from a computer that was fed information on area codes, exchanges, and banks of numbers in use in households throughout the United States. Since any possible number could be selected, even unlisted numbers fall into the sample with their appropriate frequency.
Observations The proportion of smokers among teenagers appears to have declined appreciably from levels which have been reported in numerous studies over the past 10 years. Defining "regular" smoking among teenagers as smoking regularly either daily or weekly, one boy in seven and one girl in 12 is so characterized for the entire group between the ages of 12 and
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18. This frequency varies from only 1.3 percent of the 12-year-old boys and 0.3 percent of the 12year-old girls to 35.5 percent of the 18-yearold boys and 21.3 percent of the 18-year-old girls. In 1957, 34.7 percent of the 17-year-old boys studied in Portland, Oreg. (1), were smoking at this level

References: (1) Horn, D., Courts, F. A., Taylor, R. M., and Solomon, E. S.: Cigarette smoking among high school students. Amer J Public Health 49: 1497-1511 (1959). (2) Salber, E.: What the Newton study bodes for future research. In Proceedings of the Third National Behavioral Conference on Smoking and Health, Madison, Wis., May 1967. In press. Harvard Anesthesia Center A 5-year grant of $3,326,365 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Public Health Service, has been awarded to Harvard University Medical School for the establishment of an anesthesia center directed toward improved, scientific patient care. The need for concern with the quality of anesthetic care is stressed by the fact that an estimated 10,000 persons die each year in the United States from causes related to anesthesia. This grant for an anesthesiology center is the second of its kind to be awarded by the Institute. The first, awarded in June 1967, was used to establish an anesthesiology center at the University of Pennsylvania. These two large-scale, multidisciplinary centers are part of the Institute 's nationwide effort authorized 2 years ago by the Congress to expand research and increase the number of physician-scientists in anesthesiology patient care, research, and teaching. The grant to Harvard will support coordinated activities at the Beth Israel Hospital, the Boston City Hospital, the Children 's Hospital Medical Center, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. The objective is to establish at Harvard Medi- cal School a center of excellence in anesthesiology training and research. This center will be based on the facilities of the participating Harvard teaching hospitals and on expanded multidisciplinary cooperation. Research and training will receive equal emphasis, and all efforts will be directed toward improved, scientific patient care. The research effort will emphasize studies relevant to anesthesia and the sciences on which anesthesiology is based, to pain problems, and to circulatory and respiratory care. This effort will take the fullest advantage of advanced technology and interdisciplinary cooperation, involving internists, surgeons, pharmacologists, physiologists, chemists, psychologists, statisticians, engineers, and systems analysts. Through all its activities the center hopes to identify, define, and remove obstacles to broader application of advanced care to patients. Anesthesiology, as is all medicine, is faced with a shortage of physicians as well as other health personnel. In addition to training more workers, the center will provide scientific means for the continuous evaluation of the quality of care and the optimum use of physician and other manpower. 460 Public Health Reports