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Important Facts for Adults Who Are Current Smokers

Definition

Current smoking prevalence represents the percent of survey respondents who report that they currently smoke "every day" or "most days" and have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

Numerator

Number of adults aged 18 years and older who currently smoke

Denominator

Number of adults aged 18 years and older responding to the BRFSS survey

Data Interpretation Issues

Since the estimates are based on a sample and not the entire population, the percentage of adults in the survey reporting good/very good/excellent health may differ from the true prevalence of that characteristic in the North Carolina population simply by chance. We report confidence intervals which take this error into account and present a range in which the true value is likely to fall.

For more information on how to interpret confidence intervals, please see: http://www.schs.state.nc.us/SCHS/champ/technical.html

Why Is This Important?

"An estimated 13,000 North Carolinians aged 35 years or older died from a smoking-related cause each year during 2005-2009. North Carolina has the 14th highest smoking prevalence in the nation. Although overall smoking rates among adults in the state have dropped in the past decade, North Carolina still lags behind the national average." - North Carolina Institute of Medicine. Healthy North Carolina 2020: A Better State of Health.

Other Objectives

Healthy North Carolina 2020