On this page: About the National Data | Methodology | History
About the National Data
Data
Data Source: National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), CDC/NCCDPHP
Baseline: 77.5 percent of students in grades 6 through 12 who are current tobacco users used flavored tobacco products in 2020
Target: 73.2 percent
Methodology
Use of any tobacco product is defined as use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco/snuff/dip, snus, and dissolvable tobacco), hookah, pipe tobacco, bidis, and/or heated tobacco products on at least one day in the past 30 days.
Flavored tobacco product use was determined by a response of 'yes' to the question, "Were any of the [tobname] that you used in the past 30 days flavored to taste like menthol, mint, clove or spice, alcohol (wine, cognac), candy, fruit, chocolate, or any other flavor?" The respondent was asked this question specifically for each tobacco product that they had reported using during the past 30 days; the text in brackets [tobname] was replaced with each specific tobacco product name (e.g., "Were any of the [e-cigarettes] that you used…"). Those who responded 'no' for each product type were coded as only nonflavored users; and those who did not provide any response to the flavored use question were assigned to missing flavor status.
Menthol cigarette status was determined by asking, "Menthol cigarettes are cigarettes that taste like mint. During the past 30 days, were the cigarettes that you usually smoked menthol?"
All past 30-day cigarette smokers were asked, "During the past 30 days, what brands of cigarettes did you smoke? (Select one or more)." If the respondent selected a single brand option in this question, that was determined to be their usual brand. If a respondent selected >1 brand used during the past 30 days, usual brand was determined by the question, "During the past 30 days, what brand of cigarettes did you usually smoke? (Choose only one answer)." For both questions, write-in responses indicating "Kool" or "Newport" were recoded, accordingly. Among past 30-day cigarette smokers, those responding "Yes" to the menthol question, or who reported "Newport" or "Kool" as the usual cigarette brand were classified as menthol smokers; subsequently those who reported "No" to the menthol question and who did not report "Newport" or "Kool" brands were classified as non-menthol smokers; all other past 30-day cigarette smokers were classified as missing menthol smoking status.
History
In 2021, this objective was revised to accommodate changes to the survey questions. Beginning with the 2020 survey year, the list of any tobacco product was revised from: e-cigarettes, cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco [chewing tobacco/snuff/dip, snus, and dissolvable tobacco], hookah, pipe tobacco, and/or bidis to also include heated tobacco products.
The question(s) for flavored tobacco products were revised from "Which of the following tobacco products that you used in the past 30 days were flavored to taste like menthol (mint), alcohol (wine, cognac), candy, fruit, chocolate, or other sweets?" (Participants could select from a list of options to designate the flavored tobacco products they had used) to "Were any of the [tobname] that you used in the past 30 days flavored to taste like menthol, mint, clove or spice, alcohol (wine, cognac), candy, fruit, chocolate, or any other flavor?"
The questions used to assess usual cigarette brand (used to determine menthol cigarette status) were also revised in 2020. Beginning in 2020, all past 30-day cigarette smokers were asked, “During the past 30 days, what brands of cigarettes did you smoke? (Select one or more).” If a respondent selected more than 1 brand used during the past 30 days, usual brand was determined by the question, "During the past 30 days, what brand of cigarettes did you usually smoke? (Choose only one answer)." In previous years, only one usual brand was reported.
Due to these changes, the baseline for this objective was revised from 64.1% in 2018 to 77.5% in 2020. The target was revised from 59.2% to 73.2% using the original target setting method.
1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.
