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Valencia County Health Highlights: Adult Smoking Prevalence
Tobacco Use: Adult Smoking Prevalence
Why Is This Important?
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. One in five adults and one in four youth smoke in New Mexico. About half of all lifetime smokers will die early because of their decisions to smoke. In New Mexico, about 2,100 people die from tobacco use annually and another 42,000 are living with tobacco-related diseases. Annual smoking-related costs in New Mexico are $928 million ($461 million in direct medical costs and $467 million in lost productivity).Evidence-based Practices
Addressing tobacco use is best done through a coordinated effort to establish smoke-free policies and social norms, to promote and assist tobacco users to quit, and to prevent initiation of tobacco use. This comprehensive approach combines educational, clinical, regulatory, economic, and social strategies. Research has documented strong or sufficient evidence in the use of the following strategies:- Increasing the unit price of tobacco products
- Restricting minors' access to tobacco products; restricting the time, place, and manner in which tobacco is marketed and sold
- Strategic, culturally appropriate, and high impact health communication messages (mass media), including paid TV, radio, billboard, print, and web-based advertising at state and local levels
- Ensuring that all patients seen in the health care system are screened for tobacco use, receive brief interventions to help them quit, and are offered more intensive counseling and low- or no-cost cessation medications; providing insurance coverage of tobacco use treatment; phone- and web-based cessation services are effective and can reach large numbers of tobacco users;
- Passage of laws and policies in a comprehensive tobacco control effort to protect the public from secondhand exposure
- Focusing tobacco prevention and cessation interventions on populations at greatest risk in an effort to reduce tobacco-related health disparities
Sources: CDC. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs - 2007 (published October 2007). (www.cdc.gov/tobacco/stateandcommunity/best_practices/index.htm)
The Guide to Community Preventive Services: Tobacco Use - 2010 (www.thecommunityguide.org/tobacco/index.html)
Related Indicators
Relevant Population Characteristics:
Adult Smoking Prevalence by County, 2008-2010
Note
Data were not available for some counties due to insufficient numbers of people (fewer than 50) from those counties who were surveyed in the BRFSS. For 2008-2010, De Baca and Harding counties did not meet the DOH small numbers rule. The county-level BRFSS data used for this smoking indicator were weighted to be representative of the New Mexico Health Region populations. Had the data been weighted to be representative of each county population, the results would likely have been different.Data Sources
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, together with New Mexico Department of Health, Injury and Behavioral Epidemiology Bureau.Measure Description for Tobacco Use: Adult Smoking Prevalence
Definition: A current smoker is defined as a person 18 years or older who has smoked more than 100 cigarettes in his or her lifetime and
currently smokes every day or some days.
Numerator: Number of survey respondents who reported they were current smokers
Denominator: Total number of BRFSS survey respondents
Click on this link to jump to the complete indicator profile report for Tobacco Use: Adult Smoking Prevalence (exits this community report).
Date Indicator Content Last Updated: 04/26/2012
