Fewer Americans smoked during first year of pandemic, study shows
In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, more Americans drank heavily and used illicit drugs – but apparently fewer smoked.
US cigarette smoking dropped to a new all-time low in 2020, with one in eight adults saying they were current smokers, according to survey data released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Adult e-cigarette use also dropped, the CDC reported.
CDC officials credited public health campaigns and policies for the decline, but outside experts said tobacco company price hikes and pandemic lifestyle changes probably played roles.
“People who were mainly social smokers just didn’t have that going on any more,” said Megan Roberts, an Ohio State University researcher focused on tobacco product use among young adults and adolescents.
What’s more, parents who suddenly were home with their kids full-time may have cut back. And some people may have quit following reports that smokers were more likely to develop severe illness after a coronavirus infection, Roberts added.
The CDC report, based on a survey of more than 31,000 US adults, found that 19% of Americans used at least one tobacco product in 2020, down from about 21% in 2019.
Use of cigars, smokeless tobacco and pipes was flat. Use of electronic cigarettes dropped to 3.7%, down from 4.5% the year before.
Cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product, with 12.5% of adults using them, down from 14%.
Health officials have long considered cigarette smoking – a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke – to be the leading cause of preventable death in the US. In 1965, 42% of US adults were smokers.
Other surveys have suggested that for many people, alcohol consumption and illicit drug use increased in the first year of the pandemic.