• Facts
  
• Resources

FACTS    

• 45.3 million adults in the U.S. smoked cigarettes in 2006.

• 8% of middle school students reported smoking in 2005, as did 23% of high school students¹. 13.9% of male high school students reported using smokeless tobacco.²

• Higher smoking prevalence in adults is associated with being male, having fewer years of education, living below the poverty level, and being 18 to 44 years of age.
• Smoking in the U.S. has been in decline for four decades. However, recent surveys suggest that this decline has stalled.³
  

• The costs of smoking-related illness amount to more than $167 billion every year in the U.S.⁴

RESOURCES

• Healthcare Provider Reminder Systems, Provider Education, and Patient Education: Working with Healthcare Delivery Systems to Improve the Delivery of Tobacco-Use Treatment to Patients—An Action Guide (2008) — An evidence-based tool developed by Partnership for Prevention and CDC that provides guidance on how to work with healthcare delivery systems to improve rates of tobacco-use treatment.
  
  
• Video series on employer strategies for tobacco control. Read more.

• Update on state Medicaid coverage for tobacco-dependence treatments published in MMWR. Read more.  

• Smoke-Free Policies: Establishing a Smoke-Free Ordinance to Reduce Exposure to Secondhand Smoke in Indoor Worksites and Public Places—An Action Guide (2007) — An evidence-based tool, based on a recommendation from The Guide to Community Preventive Services, that walks public health practitioners through the steps to build support for and establish a community smoke-free ordinance.            PDF    Order

• Tobacco Cessation Counseling (2006) — Partnership has posted extensive details about the health impact and cost effectiveness of tobacco cessation counseling and other effective clinical preventive services on the home page for our 2006 report, Priorities for America's Health: Capitalizing on Life-Saving, Cost-Effective Preventive Services. The findings from our analysis of tobacco cessation counseling were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Read the Article. 

• Medicaid Coverage of Tobacco Cessation Counseling and Treatment (2006)— Testimony for the Interim Health and Welfare Committee of the Kentucky General Assembly, November 15, 2006. Delivered by Dr. Steven H. Woolf, Professor of Family Medicine, Epidemiology and Community Health, Virginia Commonwealth University on behalf of Partnership for Prevention's National Commission on Prevention Priorities. Dr. Woolf argues that tobacco cessation counseling is more important than anything else doctors do and is a benchmark of health care system quality. 

• The prevalence of smoking is much higher among those eligible for Medicaid than almost any other population group (estimated 31.2%). A 2007 report from the American Legacy Foundation shows the positive impact effective smoking cessation programs can have on state Medicaid expenditures. Saving Lives, Saving Money II: Tobacco-Free States Spend Less on Medicaid.

• Chronic Disease Prevention Action Planning Handbook and Case Studies (2005) — Guide for states and communities to develop and implement evidence-based, integrated chronic disease prevention programs.