Cigarette use among two cohorts of U.S. Air Force recruits, compared with secular trends

This study provides a comparison of cigarette smoking among two cohorts of U.S. Air Force recruits. The first cohort, Air Force 1, entered the military between August 1995 and August 1996. The second cohort, Air Force 2, entered between October 1999 and September 2000. Cigarette use significantly increased among both men (7.0-percentage point increase) and women (7.3-percentage point increase) between the two cohorts. This difference remained statistically significant in models adjusted for demographic differences between the two groups of recruits. Direct standardization methods were then used to compare rates in both Air Force surveys with rates of current smoking reported for a national sample from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys from the same years. Although the average number of cigarettes smoked and years of smoking decreased between the two cohorts, troops from Air Force 2 reported being less motivated to quit. This study suggests that efforts to reduce smoking among junior enlisted troops in the Air Force should be bolstered.