Despite e-cigarettes being the most widely used tobacco product for the tenth consecutive years, e-cigarette use in highschoolers dropped by 4.1%. Photo Credit: sarahjohnson1, Pixabay
Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Youth Tobacco Survey, 2023, revealed a decline in current (past 30-day) use of tobacco products by high school students decreased from 16.5% to 12.6% in 2022–2023, mostly due to a decrease in e-cigarette use (from 14.1% to 10.0%). There were also declines in high school students' use of any combustible tobacco product, including cigars.
Among middle school students, increases occurred during 2022-2023 in current use of at least one tobacco product (4.5% to 6.6%) and use of multiple tobacco products (1.5% to 2.5%). However, no other notable changes were observed among middle school children for any specific tobacco product category, including e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes were the most widely used tobacco product among students in middle school (4.6%) and high school (10%) for the tenth consecutive year. In 2023, cigarettes (1.6%), cigars (1.6%), nicotine pouches (1.5%), smokeless tobacco (1.2%), other oral nicotine products (1.2%), hookah (1.1%), heated tobacco products (1.0%), and pipe tobacco (0.5%) were among the other tobacco products that were currently being used by middle school and high school students.
Furthermore, 46.7% of all students who had ever used e-cigarettes reported current use in 2023. Moreover, 25.2% of those who reported current e-cigarette use said they used them daily. And, 34.7% of current e-cigarette users indicated frequent use, which is defined as using an e-cigarette for at least 20 of the past thirty days.
Elf Bar (56.7%), Esco Bars (21.6%), Vuse (20.7%), Juul (16.5%), and Mr. Fog (13.6%) were among the flavored items that the majority (89.4%) of middle school and high school students who currently used e-cigarettes reported using.