Based on a new study released by the CDC, there has been a decline in the percentage of smokers in the United States, finding a striking difference between adults who smoked in 2005 and the ones who smoked in 2014, which was reduced from 20.9 percent to 16.8 percent.
The CDC can attribute this low consumption of cigarettes to the great interest that has existed during the last few years in the e-cigarretes, hookas and other alternative methods, noting a large decline in consumption among adults aged 18 to 24. This indicates that people are highly interested in getting away from the cigarette.
The study also found that health insurance also played an important role in these data, finding that those who were under the US government’s Medicaid program were more likely to smoke than others, with a percentage of 29.1. Same with those without insurance, which were found among 27.9 percent. The proportion of smokers with private health insurance or Medicare was far less, at 12.9 percent and 12.5 percent respectively, according to the CDC’s figures as said on Steelers Lounge.
Health officials report that the number of smokers in the U.S. have declined by almost 20 percent in the last decade, as well as a full percentage point drop a year ago. There is a goal is to reduce the cigarette smoking rate to 12 percent or lower in line with the Healthy People 2020 campaign, which is a 10-year agenda to help improve the country’s health.
Among the results released by the CDC, they concluded that more men (18.8 %) than women (14.8 %) are cigarette smokers, while adults aged 25-44 years (20 %) are more likely to smoke than other age groups. Those who finished high school in General Education Development were especially likely to smoke (43 %), while Native Americans (29.2 %) and multiracial people (27.9 %) also had a high tendency to smoke.
“Smoking kills half a million Americans each year and costs more than $300 billion,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement released on Thursday. “This report shows real progress helping American smokers quit and that more progress is possible.”
Source: Tech Times