Smoking by teenagers fell sharply and steadily between 1997 and 2003, but the latest data from a federal survey tracking smoking and other risky behaviors among young people found the proportion of teens who smoke leveled off between 2003 and 2007.

The survey did show continued declines in some groups, most notably African-American girls. But overall, the downward trend seems to have stopped.

The data released last week come from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a nationally representative survey that the federal government conducts of students in grades 9-12 every two years to track a variety of risk behaviors, including drug, alcohol and tobacco use.

The proportion of students who smoke soared from 27.5 percent in 1991 to 36.4 percent in 1997 but then began to fall, hitting 21.9 percent in 2003. The 2005 survey, however, showed the rate had crept up to 23 percent. Because that change was not statistically significant, officials were waiting for the 2007 figures to determine whether the downward trend had actually stalled.

The 2007 figure is slightly lower at 20 percent, but again, the figure is not statistically significant.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Teen Health, addiction, smoking, substance abuse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.