Pacific Northwest Native American Youth and Smokeless Tobacco Use

This study examined snuff and chewing tobacco use among Alaska Native and American Indian adolescents. Results show frequent and early use of smokeless tobacco products. Almost one fifth of all females and close to one half of all males had used snuff or chewing tobacco on more than 20 occasions. Weekly smokeless tobacco use was reported by 34% of all females and by 42.6% of all males. By product type, 32.6% of all subjects had used snuff and 27.8% had chewed tobacco in the past week. Among females, over one half of all subjects had used snuff or chewing tobacco before age 10 years. Among males, nearly one half of the subjects first used smokeless tobacco prior to 8 years of age. Few subjects had used cigarettes or other smoked tobacco products.

Smokeless tobacco use by young Americans is drawing increased attention (Chassin et al., 1985; Christen, 1985; Edmundson et al., in press; Glover, O'Brien, and Holbert, in press). Among those at highest risk for early and frequent smokeless tobacco use are Native American youth (Schinke et al., 1986). Though Alaska Native and American Indian people enjoy the lowest smoking rates of any U.S. ethnic-racial group, smokeless tobacco use by Native adolescents may antecede health problems and later cigarette use (Beauvais, Oetting, and Edwards, in press). In 1986 we studied the prevalence, onset, and relationship to smoking of snuff and chewing tobacco use among a sample of Alaska Native and American Indian youth.