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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – This study found between 2008 to 2010 and 2014 to 2016, cigarette smoking rates declined for rural and urban adolescents; however, rural reductions lagged behind urban reductions. Controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, rural versus urban odds of cigarette smoking did not differ in 2008 through 2010; however, in 2014 through 2016, rural youths had 50 percent higher odds of smoking than did their urban peers.
Study authors concluded differential reductions in rural youth cigarette smoking have widened the rural–urban gap in current smoking rates for adolescents.
[Author Contact: Erika C. Ziller, Maine Rural Health Research Center, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME. “Rural–urban differences in the decline of adolescent cigarette smoking.”]