ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey

The ASH Year 10 Snapshot surveys 20,000-30,000 students every year on their smoking and vaping behaviour and attitudes.  It uses robust and validated measures.  It is conducted to a high methodological standard that has been subject to peer review and ethics approval.  

The data has integrity, is trusted and is therefore used extensively by government, DHBs, policy-makers, researchers and schools.

Frequent and consistent surveying allow good measurement of trends and the large sample allows detailed sub-sample analysis, along with the ability to provide results to individual schools.

The Survey is one of the largest youth smoking and vaping surveys in the world.

It began in 1992 and has been running annually since 1999. (It was not able to be carried out in 2020 because of Covid-19.) 

It is a census style survey – all New Zealand  schools with Year 10 students are invited to participate (other than distance education).  The answers given by students are confidential.  But each participating school is provided with information on smoking and vaping that is relevant to their school and how they compare with trends nationally.  This informs evidence-based responses for them to effectively deal with any issues.

The ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey is funded by the Ministry of Health, through Te Hiringa Hauora (the Health Promotion Agency), as part of the New Zealand Youth Tobacco Monitor (NZYTM). 

Sally Wong is the lead researcher for the ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey. She has been leading the Survey on behalf of ASH since 2015.

The NZYTM Scientific Advisory Group provides expert advice and input into the Survey.

2022 ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey

The ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey will be conducted in Term 2 between 23 May and 8 July 2022. Invitations have now been sent to all schools with Year 10 students - if you did not receive one, please contact ASH researcher Sally Wong via email. 

Information for schools

Information for people working with schools

Information for researchers

Current Topics

There are some questions in the ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey that remain constant and others vary from year to year.

Topics covered in the 2021 ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey

Methods

The ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey is a one-page (2-sided) paper-based survey. Consent for participation by schools is provided by principals on behalf of schools and students are given the opportunity to opt out at the time of survey. Typically, 20,000 – 30,000 students participate in the Survey each year, comprising 35 – 50% of the Year 10 population. Non-response mainly occurs at school level. 

The Survey is carried out during Term 2 during class time and is administered by school staff. All responses are anonymous, and the information collected is confidential.

Completed questionnaires are returned to ASH via courier, where they are checked. Spoiled or incomplete questionnaires are removed, then surveys are sent to the data entry provided for scanning.

Only questionnaires with valid answers to age, gender, ethnicity, and smoking status are included for analysis. Ethnicity is coded using prioritised ethnicity classification (Ministry of Health, 2017). For comparison to previous years, analysis is restricted to those aged 14- and 15-years-old.

All waves of the survey have been approved by the Multiregional Health and Disability Ethics Committee (MEC/07/10/141).

About the Scientific Advisory Group

The NZYTM Scientific Advisory Group provides expert advice and input into the ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey. It includes academics and researchers who specialise in public health, smoking and vaping, and youth health research; a number of whom have advised on the Survey for many years.

To find out about the members of the Scientific Advisory Group, click HERE.

Research using the ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey

Because of the longevity, size and reliability of the ASH Year 10 Survey, it is often used for further research.  

To find out more about the research undertaken, click HERE.

Using the ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey

The results of the 2021 Survey provide the most up to date, comprehensive and reliable information about youth smoking and vaping.   The results can be viewed under 2021 resources - please scroll down. 

More results will be posted in mid-April - these relate to "regular" smoking and vaping.

If you are a participating school, we will have provided you with information  directly to you, about what’s going on in your school.  If you have not received that information, please contact us directly.

ASH encourages researchers to use the Survey to better understand youth smoking and vaping.

Whilst the factsheets for the most recent data are below, all of the data gathered over the last 30 years is available.

If you are interested in using the data you can find more information here: Accessing ASH Year 10 Data