The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that primary care providers offer interventions, including education and counseling, to prevent school-aged children and adolescents from beginning to use tobacco products. This recommendation statement is being jointly published in the peer reviewed medical journals Annals of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.

The recommendation is an update since the Task Force found insufficient evidence in 2003 to recommend primary care relevant interventions for youth tobacco prevention.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, resulting in about 443,000 deaths every year. Every day, more than 3,800 children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 smoke their first cigarette. An estimated 1,000 children and adolescents under the age of 18 begin smoking on a daily basis. Prevention strategies are needed to reduce the number of deaths directly related to the use of tobacco.

Systematic review of trials designed to prevent tobacco use and promote cessation showed that primary care relevant interventions helped reduce the risk of smoking initiation by 19 percent compared to participants in control groups during six and 36-month follow ups.

“We are pleased to be publishing these recommendations simultaneously with Pediatrics,” said Dr. Christine Laine, editor-in-chief of Annals of Internal Medicine. “Youth tobacco prevention is an important public health issue that requires layered intervention. Internal medicine physicians who treat both adolescents and adults are uniquely positioned to provide education and counseling to children and their parents.”

Authors of a related opinion piece write that an increase of the legal age for buying tobacco products to 21 is “the right thing to do.” They argue that 90 percent of daily adult smokers had their first cigarette by the time they were 18.

“Making it more difficult for young adults to purchase cigarettes has the potential to interrupt the trajectory from experimentation to regular use,” wrote Dr. Michael Steinberg of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Division of General Medicine.

Both the USPSTF recommendation statement and the opinion piece will be published in Annals of Internal Medicine.