Trends in Quit Attempts Among Adult Cigarette Smokers - United States, 2001-2013.

What is already known on this topic? Quitting smoking is beneficial to health at any age, and cigarette smokers who quit before age 35 years have mortality rates similar to those of persons who never smoked. What is added by this report?During 2001­2010, the proportion of adult cigarette smokers who had made a quit attempt in the past year increased significantly in 29 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. During 2011­2013, the proportion who had made a quit attempt increased in Hawaii and Puerto Rico and decreased in New Mexico. In 2013, the proportion who had made a quit attempt ranged from 56.2% (Kentucky) to 76.4% (Puerto Rico and Guam) with a median of 65.9%, and was generally lower in older age groups. What are the implications for public health practice? Continued implementation of effective evidence-based public health interventions can reduce the health and costs impacts of smoking-related disease and death and accelerate progress toward meeting the Healthy People 2020 target to increase to ≥80% the proportion of U.S. adult cigarette smokers who made a quit attempt in the past year. These interventions include increasing the price of tobacco products, implementing comprehensive smoke-free laws, conducting educational mass media campaigns, and providing insurance coverage for all effective cessation treatments as well as access to quitlines.

Methodology of the youth risk behavior surveillance system.

CDC developed the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) to monitor six categories of priority health-risk behaviors among youth--behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity--plus overweight. These risk behaviors contribute markedly to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States. YRBSS includes a national school-based survey conducted by CDC as well as state, territorial, and local school-based surveys conducted by education and health agencies. In these surveys, conducted biennially since 1991, representative samples of students in grades 9--12 are drawn. In 2003, a total of 15,214 students completed the national survey, and 32 states and 20 school districts also obtained data representative of their jurisdiction. Although multiple publications have described certain methodologic features of YRBSS, no report has included a comprehensive description of the system and its methodology. This report describes the background and rationale for YRBSS and includes a detailed description of the methodologic features of the system, including its questionnaire; operational procedures; sampling, weighting, and response rates; data-collection protocols; data-processing procedures; reports and publications; and data quality. YRBSS is evolving to meet the needs of CDC and other users of the data.