Epidemiology of tobacco use in the United States.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review and conceptual framework without systematic review methodology
PubMed 12379876 · doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1205808
What was done
Narrative review examining historical trends in manufactured cigarette use, subsequent lung cancer incidence, and public health interventions in the United States. The paper describes an epidemiologic framework categorizing tobacco control into agent, host, vector, and environment.
What was found
Manufactured cigarette consumption increased early in the twentieth century, followed by a rise in lung cancer first among men and then among women. Since 1965, cigarette smoking prevalence among United States adults declined by almost half across nearly all sociodemographic groups. No other numerical figures or specific statistical estimates are reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
It summarizes the multi-decade relationship between public health education campaigns, declines in population-level tobacco consumption, and subsequent decreases in smoking-attributable disease.
Limits
The paper is an unsystematic narrative review with no primary data analysis, search methodology, or quantitative evaluation of bias. The abstract presents broad historical trends without precise point estimates or confidence intervals.
Cited by
- supports Smoking prevalence in the US population has declined from 45% to 18% over the past 40 years.