By Caribbean Medical News Staff
According to the Centres of Disease Control (CDC) smoking is down to its absolute lowest ever since the CDC started tracking smoking in 1965.
According to a report in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, smoking in adults has trickled to only 17.8% while in the average smoker, down by three percent. The research suggested that people are now less inclined to smoke, are smoking less frequently or are decreasing the number of cigarettes that they smoke in general.
“There is encouraging news in this study, but we still have much more work to do to help people quit,” said Tim McAfee, the director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.
Interestingly, the report indicated that those who continued to smoke at higher than average rates were those of mixed race, the impoverished, individuals with disabilities and men.
The 2013 survey identified those referring to themselves as being from the gay and lesbian community as smoking more than 10% higher than all other groupings according to the 2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
The survey studied 34,557 respondents who were 18 or older with a response rate of 61.2%.
