The Youth Tobacco Survey (YTS) is a paper survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with participating states. It is designed to help plan and evaluate state-based comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs. Public middle and high school students answer questions about tobacco use, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. You can now build your own report with the newly released 2019 YTS data on Hawaii-IBIS. Here are some highlights from the 2019 YTS results:
High School
- 80% of current high school student smokers got their cigarettes without buying them at a store (obtained cigarettes from friends or family, by giving someone money, or by stealing them).
- Current e-cigarette users increased substantially from 21% in 2017 to 33% in 2019.
- The three most common reasons why high school students used e-cigarettes were because they came in flavors (28%), friends or family members used them (35%), and other reasons not specified (50%).
- While only 40% of all high school students live with someone you uses any form of tobacco, 57% of current high school tobacco users lives with a tobacco user.
- 78% of high school students indicated that they think smoke from other people’s cigarettes causes some or a lot of harm.
Middle School
- 39% of middle school students indicated that it would be somewhat or very easy to get tobacco products if they wanted them.
- More students are currently smoking e-cigarettes (16%) than traditional cigarettes (3%).
- The most common reasons why middle school students used e-cigarettes are because they are less harmful than other tobacco products (14%), friends or family members use them (33%), they come in flavors (33%), and some other reason (48%).
- While 42% of all middle school students lives with someone who uses any form of tobacco, 70% of current middle school tobacco users lives with a tobacco user.
- 16% of all middle school students said they rode in a vehicle with someone who was smoking tobacco on 1 or more of the past 7 days .
Updated: 02/17/2020
