Patterns and correlates of smoking and smokeless tobacco use among continuation high school students

Students attending continuation high schools in San Diego, California were surveyed on their smoking and smokeless tobacco (SLT) use. The students are assigned to continuation high schools because of credit deficiencies, usually resulting from absenteeism, poor grades, and delinquency. Results indicated that smoking was higher than national prevalence rates for these adolescents, with the prevalence of weekly and daily smoking at 50.4% and 43.9%, respectively. Among weekly smokers, 43.7% reported smoking at least half a pack of cigarettes per day. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that Anglo ethnicity, having a friend who smokes, weekly use of marijuana and alcohol, and having adults in the home who smoke were significantly associated with weekly smoking. The prevalence of SLT was very low, with only 5.7% reporting monthly use, 2.9% weekly use, and 1.8% daily use. With respect to monthly SLT use, increased risk was found among males, students whose friends used SLT, weekly alcohol users, students who intended on enrolling in college, and those with an adult in the home who used SLT. Comparison to a population of students attending regular public high schools in the same region showed that the prevalence of daily use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and other illicit substances were 3.9, 2.7, 3.7, and 2.2 times higher, respectively, among the continuation high school students than the public school students. Daily use of SLT among the continuation high school students was, however, only 0.4 times as high as the regular public school students.