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YTS Data Release Notes


General Release Notes

2019 YTS


In 2017 e-cigarettes and hookah smoking were added to the survey as stand-alone questions. They had previously been included in a list with multiple options for students to indicate new tobacco products that they had ever tried or had used on one or more of the past 30 days. New indicators were created for these starting in 2017 because the change in question format made the data not comparable. The new indicators were added to IBIS in 2019, once two years of data were available.

The definition of "Tobacco - ever used, any and current use, any" have changed slightly over time. Prior to 2017 it included cigarettes; cigars, cigarillos or little cigars; chewing tobacco, snuff or dip; tobacco in a pipe; and bidis or kreteks. From 2017 forward e-cigarettes and hookahs replaced pipe tobacco, bidis and kreteks. We have included these changes in their respective indicators as they show the relative use of the most popular forms of tobacco among youth from 2000-2019.

There was a slight change in response options for race/ethnicity in the 2019 survey: "I do not describe myself as only one group" was not included in the race/ethnicity question. This resulted in an increase in the relative percentage of students who identified as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander and a decrease in those who identified as other.

While it the policy of HHDW to archive indicators based on questions which have not been asked in 6+ years, we have preserved all the YTS indicators with this data load as it is our understanding that 2019 was the last year this survey will be administered.

New Demographics category

We introduced a new demographics category in this release. This section allows users to view detailed information about the YTS population.

New dimensions are now available


New YTS indicators in 2019

There are several new indicators available:


All Years

For more information on the number of students surveyed each year and links to the survey instruments, please click here.

Race/Ethnicity Data

Students are asked two questions to ascertain their race/ethnicity:
In HHDW, the most granular level is the program race/ethnicity (PRG) which rolls up into the DOH standard race/ethnicity (DOH), which rolls up into Census race reporting categories (Census). The table below illustrates how the data is aggregated. Note that in 2019, "I do not describe myself as only one group" was omitted as a response option.

Race/Ethnicity Classifications
Source Race/EthnicityProgram Race/Ethnicity (PRG)DOH Race/Ethnicity (DOH)Census Race (Census)
Black or African AmericanBlackBlackBlack or African American
ChineseChineseChineseAsian
FilipinoFilipinoFilipinoAsian
Hawaiian/ Part HawaiianHawaiian/ Part HawaiianNative HawaiianNative Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
Hispanic or LatinoOtherOtherOther
JapaneseJapaneseJapaneseAsian
Other Pacific IslanderPacific Islander UnspecifiedOther Pacific IslanderNative Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
WhiteWhiteWhiteWhite
Some other groupOtherOtherOther
I do not describe myself as only one groupOtherOtherOther


Cell Suppression

According to CDC guidelines, a minimum of 50 students must answer a question in order for it to be reported. Where the number of students is below 50, ** will appear in the data table and no data will be displayed for that cell in the chart. We suggest that you aggregate years or reduce the number of filters to achieve a reportable result.

Documentation

Documentation is available here to describe how we collect and map race/ethnicity, geography, and poverty level.

HHDW Race/Ethnicity Documentation

HHDW Geography Documentation