What's making fewer teens smoke?

April 17, 7:25 AMDenver Family Health ExaminerMeredith Jameson

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Trying to keep teenagers from smoking has been a struggle for many parents for many years.

However, research shows that teens who live in states who follow the tougher tobacco sales laws are less likely to smoke.

In addition, the higher price of cigarettes has a prohibative effect as well.

The data comes from a 2003 survey of 16,244 adolescents, nearly all 15 to 17 years old, to obtain information on smoking habits. In addition, they looked at state-collected data on merchants' compliance with anti-tobacco laws. Then they correlated the data, taking into account such factors as cigarette prices, restaurant smoking policies, anti-smoking campaigns and demographic information that included age, gender, race, ethnicity and parents' education level.

The researchers found that, as merchants more diligently enforced the ban on tobacco sales to minors and as the price of cigarettes rose, the likelihood of teens smoking dropped.

Improved compliance with the laws from 1997 to 2003 was credited with about a 21 percent decline in the likelihood of a teen smoking. Price increases for a pack of cigarettes during that time reduced the odds by about 47 percent, the study found.

And lest you think that having a teenager experiment with cigarettes isn't a big deal, according to the American Lung Association, about 90 percent of smokers started before age 21, and an estimated 4.5 million U.S. adolescents smoke.

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