The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It is a cross-sectional, voluntary, school-based, self-administered electronic survey of U.S. middle and high school students. The survey provides nationally representative data about middle and high school student’s tobacco-related beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, access and exposure to pro- and anti-tobacco influences. It also serves as a baseline for comparing progress toward meeting seven Healthy People 2030 goals for reducing tobacco use among youth. Here are some highlights from the 2020 NYTS:
- 1.8 million fewer U.S. youth are currently using e-cigarettes compared to last year, but an alarming 3.6 million youths are still using e-cigarettes.
- 19.6% of high school students (3.02 million) and 4.7% of middle school students (550,000) reported current e-cigarette use.
- 22.5% of high school users and 9.4% of middle school users reported daily use.
- Among all current e-cigarette users, 82.9% used flavored e-cigarettes, including 84.7% of high school users and 73.9% of middle school users.
- Similar to 2019, prefilled pods or cartridges were the most commonly used device type in 2020; however, disposable e-cigarette use increased approximately 1,000% (from 2.4% to 26.5%) among high school current users and 400% (from 3.0% to 15.2%) among middle school current users between 2019 and 2020.
- Among current users of flavored prefilled pods or cartridges, the most commonly used flavor types were fruit (66.0%); mint (57.5%); menthol (44.5%); and candy, desserts, or other sweets (35.6%).
- Among current users of flavored disposable e-cigarettes, the most commonly used flavor types were fruit (82.7%); mint (51.9%); candy, desserts, or other sweets (41.7%); and menthol (23.3%).
Source: Wang TW, Neff LJ, Park-Lee E, Ren C, Cullen KA, King BA. E-cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:1310–1312. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6937e1
Updated: 01/7/2020