It’s been almost 50 years since the 1st Surgeon General’s report on the health dangers of smoking and we’re still fighting the battle. About 43 million Americans smoke despite decades of warnings. Science continues to uncover dangerous aspects of tobacco use. A new report highlights the threat to unborn children. The study published in Obstetrics [...]
We continue to make strides to get Arizonans to Kick the Habit. We got the good news this week that Arizona’s adult smoking rate dropped 2 more percentage points in the last year… going from 19% 2011 to 17% today. The data come from this year’s CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System… and it translates [...]
E-cigarettes have been a huge topic of discussion in the tobacco control industry and in public health over the past few years. While containing no actual tobacco, they do contain nicotine, are flavored and require the user to emulate the act of smoking. The CDC recently released a study showing that e-cigarette use has doubled [...]
The CDC just released a report for their national smoking cessation campaign launched in March 2012 called “Tips from former smokers.” Nationally, the ‘Tips’ campaign led to an estimated 1.6 million smokers attempting to quit with 100,000 likely quitting for good. The campaign directed callers to 1-800-QUIT-NOW. If you call from an Arizona zip code you [...]
Many of the health disparities in the US are linked to income. In general… the lower a family’s income the greater the prevalence of health disparities. Health impacts from smoking cigarettes are no exception. Arizonans below the poverty line (100% of FPL) are 40% more likely to smoke than those with more money... and about 34% of [...]
Our focus groups with young tobacco users across Arizona has found that teen and young adult smokers are different from adult smokers. Young smokers may not smoke daily and don't see themselves as smokers. They also aren’t receptive to the idea of needing help to quit. Many teen and young adult smokers believe that they can quit at [...]
There’s a new CDC Sortable Stats web application that went live a couple of weeks ago that provides an interactive tool to analyze behavioral risk factors and health indicators compiled from various published CDC and federal sources. You can search by state for things like death rates (e.g. infant mortality, heart disease, motor vehicle death rates, [...]
Surveillance is a cornerstone of public health practice because it gives us the tools we need to identify priorities and craft effective interventions to improve outcomes. Cancer surveillance is no exception. Our Arizona Cancer Registry tracks and monitors the number and types of cancer cases in the state and publishes reports periodically. Our new report [...]
The core of our decision-making as an agency relies on evidence. Evidence can be scientific like surveillance or research or it can be administrative or financial. Whichever way you slice it- the key is to get good reliable information so that our teams can make effective decisions as we execute our mission. One of the [...]
This week is Men’s Health Week - the worldwide event happens every year before Father’s Day calling attention to the issues that affect men’s health. Many groups take the opportunity to talk about men’s health – we should be thinking about our health every week. The top health issues that impact men’s health are also [...]
