Tobacco and Nicotine Use Among Students at Community Colleges and 4-Year Institutions: Implications for Equitable...

Evidence-based tobacco prevention and cessation are critical in the college setting. Relative to 4-year institutions, community colleges (CCs) are significantly under resourced in substance prevention. Prior work has demonstrated differences in tobacco use prevalence between 4-year and CC students. The present study expands prior work by examining 4-year and CC student tobacco use patterns across various types of tobacco products and intentions to change, to inform prevention efforts for 4-year and CC campuses.

A 2024 statewide (Missouri) survey of 4-year (N = 4,956) and CC (N = 2,358) students was leveraged to examine differences in tobacco/nicotine use and intentions to change.

A greater proportion of CC students reported ever using tobacco/nicotine (42.3%) relative to 4-year students (33.1%). Among students who used tobacco/nicotine in the past year, a greater proportion of CC students reported daily combustible (n = 97, 40.6%) and electronic cigarette use (n = 241, 55.8%) compared to 4-year students (n cigarette = 38, 8.0%; n e-cigarette = 309, 37.6%). A higher proportion of 4-year students had successfully quit tobacco/nicotine since entering college (32.1% vs. 26.9%), whereas a higher proportion of CC students indicated attempts or consideration of quitting (52.4% vs. 39.8%). Across both groups, most had not sought assistance with quitting (CC = 63.9%, 4-year = 64.7%).

CCs and 4-year colleges have differing campus- and student-level needs for tobacco use prevention and cessation. Equitably resourcing CC and 4-year colleges to address tobacco is critical. Efforts to increase implementation and capacity for implementation at CCs and 4-year institutions are key priorities to meet the needs of these institutions and students.