Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Young Canadians have enjoyed a stark decrease in smoking initiation in the last two decades. There is reason to believe, however, that (1) some groups such as those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged have not enjoyed this decrease and (2) young adults (18-25) have not either. This study used one of Statistics Canada's largest health database, the Canadian Community Health Survey, and examined changes in smoking initiation rates that occurred during youth and young adulthood among participants ages 25-26 between 2001 and 2013. Our results support that there has been no significant decrease in smoking initiation rates among youth who do not finish high school. We also found that there has been no change in initiation rates occurring during young adulthood during this period. We argue that public health instances should pay more attention to social inequalities and work to integrate young adults in their strategic planning.