| |
CIGARETTE SMOKING
The percentage of women who smoke, a behavior associated
with numerous chronic illnesses, has remained steady over
the last several years at slightly more than 20 percent
of women aged 18 and older.1 In 2001, 23.0 percent of females
aged 12 and older reported smoking cigarettes within the
past month. Among adolescents aged 12-17, slightly more
females
than males reported smoking in the past month (13.6 percent
versus 12.4 percent). However, women aged 18 years and
older were less likely than men to have smoked in the previous
month. For both sexes combined, cigarette smoking was most
prevalent among young adults aged 18-25 and decreased with
increasing age to 9.1 percent of individuals aged 65 and
older.
Among females who were not pregnant, American Indian/Alaska
Native women were most likely to smoke in 2000-2001,
followed by non-Hispanic White women. Although the prevalence
of
smoking was lower among pregnant women in all racial
and ethnic groups,
non-Hispanic White women were more than twice as likely
to smoke during pregnancy than non-Hispanic Black women.
There
was a slight increase in recent years in the proportion
of pregnant women who reported cigarette smoking in the
past
month, from 18.6 percent in 1999-2000 to 19.8 percent
in 2000-2001. Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated
with ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, low birth weight,
and infant mortality.
 [d]
 [d]
1National
Center for Health Statistics (2002). Health, United States.
Hyattsville, Maryland: DHHS (Table 61). [Back
to Text] |
