Fewer secondary school students are taking up smoking as researchers report “favourable progress” towards national cessation targets.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has reported on progress towards reducing the smoking rate to 10% of the population by 2018, as benchmarked by the national tobacco strategy.
The report released on Wednesday compared baseline and midpoint figures from a range of sources from 2007 to 2014, and found the habit seemed to be falling out of favour with young people.
19.1% of high school students aged between 12 and 17 had tried a cigarette for the first time in 2014, compared with 23% in 2011.
There was also a decline in the proportion of young people who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime – considered a benchmark for the “transition” phase of the habit – with only 2.7% of secondary school students having done so in 2014, down from 3. 5% in 2011.
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