Cigarette Use

Data collected: Three sets of cigarette use data for NLSY79 respondents are available: 

• Data were collected, during the 1984 survey on
  • age at first use
  • most recent use
  • the number of cigarettes smoked in the past 30 days. 
• The 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2008 surveys gathered information from those respondents on:
  • who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their life
  • the age that they started smoking daily
  • the number of months/years since they had last smoked daily 
• The 1983-86, 1988, 1990, 1992, and 1994-2008 surveys gathered, for female NLSY79 respondents, information on whether they smoked in the twelve months before pregnancy and on the number of cigarettes smoked during pregnancy (2000-2008).

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts

Data were collected beginning in 1988 for NLSY79 children 10 years of age and older on age at first use and extent of use of cigarettes.  A more extensive set of questions, were asked of the Young Adults beginning in  

In the NLSY97 round 1, all respondents were first asked whether they had ever smoked an entire cigarette; if so, they reported their age on the first occasion.  In subsequent rounds, respondents were asked whether they had smoked a cigarette since the date of last interview, and if they had, frequency of use and the quantity of cigarettes smoked.  Detailed information on cigarette use was gathered from the Mature Women in 1989 and from the Young Women in 1991 and 1993; these respondents also indicated whether they currently smoked in 1995-2003 surveys.  Older Men provided retrospective smoking data in 1990.  Consult the BLS website at www.bls.gov/nls or the appropriate cohort's User's Guide for further details.