Tobacco use among high school athletes and nonathletes: Results of the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey - Statistical Data Included

Adolescence, Winter, 2001 by Merrill J. Melnick, Kathleen E. Miller, Donald F. Sabo, Michael P. Farrell, Grace M. Barnes

Four tobacco use variables were constructed to help assess the overall relationship between adolescent sports participation and tobacco use: (1) Have you ever smoked cigarettes regularly, that is, at least one cigarette every day for 30 days? (2) During the past 30 days, did you smoke any cigarettes? (3) During the past 30 days, did you smoke any cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars? (4) During the past 30 days, did you use chewing tobacco or snuff, such as Redman, Levi Garrett, Beachnut, Skoal, Skoal Bandits, or Copenhagen?

Data Analysis

For each of the major statistical analyses reported, two versions are given; one for the dichotomous athletic team variable (nonathletes and athletes), and the other for the tripartite athletic team variable (nonathletes; moderately involved athletes playing on 1 or 2 teams; highly involved athletes playing on 3 or more teams).

Gender-specific descriptive statistics were first calculated for the whole sample (not divided by athlete status) in order to gain a better understanding of general cigarette and cigar smoking and smokeless tobacco use patterns. Descriptive statistics were weighted to compensate for oversampling of Black and Hispanic respondents. After controlling for age, race/ethnicity (White, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian! Pacific Islander), parental educational achievement (a proxy for socioeconomic status), and metropolitan status (urban, suburban, rural), logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) in order to examine the association between sports team participation and tobacco use. For all analyses, the reference category designation consisted of all nonathietes.

RESULTS

Descriptive Statistics: Sports Participation Variable

Approximately 68.1% (n = 5,973) of male respondents were members of one or more teams; for females, the statistic was 51.1% (n = 3,727). Among male athletes, 56.8% (n = 3,390) were moderately involved in sports (participated on 1 or 2 teams), and 43.2% (n = 2,583) highly involved (participated on 3 or more teams). Among female athletes, 65.9% (n = 2,457) were moderately involved in sports, and 34.1% (n = 1,270) highly involved (see Table 1).

Descriptive Statistics: Tobacco Use Variable

To the first question ("Have you ever smoked cigarettes regularly, that is, at least one cigarette every day for 30 days?"), approximately one-fourth of the sample (n = 3,967) indicated that they had ever been regular smokers (25.4% of the females and 24.3% of the males).

To the second question ("During the past 30 days, did you smoke any cigarettes?"), 34.7% of the females (n = 2,441) and 37.7% of the males (n = 3,181) indicated they had smoked one or more cigarettes during the previous month.

Based on responses to the third question ("During the past 30 days, did you smoke any cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars?"), 78.0% answered the question in the negative. Approximately 89.2% of the females (n = 6,485) and 68.8% of the males (n = 6,062) responded "no."

For the fourth question ("During the past 30 days, did you use chewing tobacco or snuff?"), relatively few females answered in the affirmative. Of the 7,313 females who responded to the question, only 1.5% (n = 109) said they had used snuff or chewing tobacco during the previous month compared to 15.8% (n = 1,399) of the males.