Alaska medicine
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The Alaska Division of Public Health monitors the prevalence of smoking and other tobacco use among Alaska adults through the Alaska Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a telephone survey performed in cooperation with the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ⋯ Alaska's rate of smokeless tobacco use has also been higher than the national rate of use. The majority of Alaska smokers (83.7%) began smoking between 10 and 20 years of age. In 1994, an estimated 121,000 Alaska adults aged 18 and older were current smokers.
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The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is a national school-based survey used to monitor health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of mortality, morbidity and social problems among youth and adults in the United States. Tobacco use is one of the behaviors monitored. Both high school and middle school surveys were administered to a representative group of Alaska high school and middle school students for the first time in 1995. ⋯ Smokeless tobacco use increased with grade level so that 29.1% of high school senior boys had used smokeless tobacco products within the previous 30 days. Over 60% of Alaska Native students reported smoking in the previous 30 days, 43.7% reported smoking 20 or more of the previous 30 days and 22.5% reported using chewing tobacco or snuff in the previous 30 days. Over half of middle school students reported having tried smoking at least once; about one-fourth smoked at least one day in the past 30 days and 5.6% smoked on 20 or more of the past 30 days.