LETTER

Seasonality in onset of youth smoking parallels seasonality in cigarette sales

RJ Wellman¹, J R DiFranza²

¹ Behavioral Science Department, Fitchburg State College, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA
² Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Joseph R DiFranza, MD, Family Medicine & Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue, Worcester, MA 01655,
difranzi@ummhc.org

Keywords: youth; seasonality; cigarette sales

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Cigarette sales in the USA peak in the summer months, June through August.¹ This finding prompted examination of data on the onset of youth smoking to determine whether a similar pattern could be discerned. In this letter we report data from the Development and Assessment of Nicotine Dependence in Youth (DANDY) study.² The sample of 679 seventh grade students from the USA had a mean initial age of 13.1 years (range 12–15 years). They were interviewed every three to four months over two and a half years. Subjects were asked to provide dates for their first use of any tobacco product, and their first puff and first inhalation on a cigarette. Additionally they provided dates for the first time they smoked twice within a 60 day period (monthly smoking) and the onset of daily smoking.

All measures of smoking onset peaked during the summer months of June through August with . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Momperousse, D, Delnevo, C D, Lewis, M J (2007). Exploring the seasonality of cigarette-smoking behaviour. Tobacco Control 16: 69-70 [Full Text]