On the first search, I used the phrase “tobacco product use.” To facilitate the relevance of search results, I ticked the boxes for “full-text” and “peer-reviewed” and indicated that my language of choice was English. From the publication date dropdown, I chose “Last 12 months” so that only articles that were published within the last year are shown in the results. During the first search, 751 matches were found, which is too much to be able to find the desired article.
During the second search, I explicitly indicated that I want to search in the article title by choosing “Document title – TI” from the dropdown on the right side of the page. By pasting the first four words of the article’s title, I was able to find it. The second search returned only a single result, but I had to increase the range for publication dates. Although the article I chose was published in May 2019, it did not appear when “Last 12 months” was enabled.
I picked this article because tobacco use is a significant health concern among youth. Constant use of tobacco products may further lead to substance abuse. To be able to address this issue, we must first understand how individuals start using tobacco and what products stipulate this usage. The work of Kowitt et al. (2019) provides statistical information on the topic. The full APA reference of the article is given on the last page of the paper.
The primary goal of the study was to determine which tobacco products adolescents first use. Kowitt et al. (2019) indicate that this knowledge may help improve the efficacy of prevention mechanisms. The frequency distribution graph shows how frequently certain tobacco products serve as the first tobacco experience for young individuals. The graph essentially depicts how the majority of adolescents start using tobacco products. Because the categorical variables used in the study are discrete in nature, the notion of class sizes is irrelevant in this context. From the frequency distribution, it can be derived that the majority of adolescents choose cigarettes as their first tobacco product (Kowitt et al., 2019). E-cigarettes are almost as popular as cigarettes – they account for nearly 70% of the first tobacco use among adolescents (Kowitt et al., 2019). This information suggests that by regulating the sale of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, the government is able to prevent early tobacco use among youth. Other categories, such as cigars and waterpipe, make up only an insignificant portion of the sample.
Reference
Kowitt, S. D., Goldstein, A. O., Sutfin, E. L., Osman, A., Meernik, C., Heck, C., & Ranney, L. M. (2019). Adolescents’ first tobacco products: Associations with current multiple tobacco products uses. PloS One, 14(5), 1-16.