You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Research paper
Smokeless tobacco use among professional baseball players: survey results, 1998 to 2003
  1. H H Severson1,
  2. K Klein1,
  3. E Lichtensein1,
  4. N Kaufman1,
  5. C T Orleans2
  1. 1Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, Oregon, USA
  2. 2Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
  1. Correspondence to:
 Herbert H Severson
 Oregon Research Institute, 1715 Franklin Blvd, Eugene OR 97403, USA; herbori.org

Abstract

Objective: The use of smokeless tobacco (ST) (snuff and chewing tobacco) has long been associated with baseball in the USA. This article reviews six years of survey data from major and minor league baseball players to evaluate trends in tobacco use and quitting patterns over time in order to gain insight into the effects of past interventions and to document continued intervention needs.

Method: Surveys were distributed by athletic trainers to major and minor league professional baseball players during spring training session in the six years from 1998 to 2003. The surveys were anonymous and identified only by team, level of league, and other self reported demographic data.

Results: ST use among professional baseball players remains much higher than among young males in the general population, and use is most prevalent among white non-Hispanic players. There was a significant decrease in ST use among minor league players from 1998 to 2003, with seven day self reported use declining from 31.7% in 1998 to 24.8% in 2003. No significant year to year changes were observed for major league players. Major league players’ self reported past week use rates, estimated at 35.9% in 1998 and at 36% in 2003, were consistently higher than those of minor league players. Self reported prevalence of past month cigarette and cigar smoking was much lower than ST use for both major and minor league players.

Conclusions: Six years of survey data confirm a continuing high use of ST among professional baseball players. Results suggest that the effects of the broad spectrum ST control efforts launched over the past decade may have been stronger among minor than major league players. Stronger policy interventions at the major league level and multi-level efforts, including programmes to increase the use of effective quitting aids and assistance, at both levels of play are needed. Future research is needed to further clarify changes in ST practices among professional players and set policy intervention directions.

  • NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association
  • NSTEP, National Spit Tobacco Education Program
  • PBATS, Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society
  • ST, smokeless tobacco
  • baseball
  • cessation
  • prevalence
  • smokeless tobacco

https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2004.007781

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • ↵* The data in table 1 are based on players’ answer to the question, “How many days in the past week did you use snuff or chewing tobacco?” Players who answered that they used one or more days were considered to be current users. In the 2001 and 2002 surveys, players were also asked “In the past 7 days, have you used any spit tobacco, even just one dip or chew?” Using responses to this question gives slightly different point prevalence rates. In other publications of these data, these rates have been cited. However, in order to ensure continuity of the data over all six years we have chosen to report data from the first question here.