Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

New research in the December issue of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, shows that there was a decline in access to cigarettes from commercial venues from 2000 to 2003.These findings are specific to the Minnesota Adolescent Community Cohort study, a longitudinal telephone survey of youth less than 18 years old.

In sharp contrast, the probability of their obtaining cigarettes from a social source in the previous month during the same time period increased significantly from 54% to 76%.

"Although the use of social sources for cigarettes may increase when the commercial supply of cigarettes is restricted, the total amount of youth smoking seems to be reduced by increased commercial restrictions" comments Dr. Widome, the corresponding author.

These results are important because they indicate a decreasing access to commercial sources of cigarettes.

Preventive Medicine is an international journal, publishing original, scholarly manuscripts pertaining to preventive medicine and public health.

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