Hookah and Cigarette Smoking Among African American College Students: Implications for Campus Risk Reduction And Health Promotion Efforts

ABSTRACT

Objective: To identify individual and institutional risks and protections for hookah and cigarette smoking among African American (AA) college students. Participants: AA college students (N = 1,402; mean age = 20, range = 18–24 years; 75% female) who completed the Fall 2012 American College Health Association–National College Health Assessment II. Methods: Respondents were stratified into 4 mutually exclusive groups by last-30-day smoking status: cigarette-only use (5.1%), hookah-only use (5.9%), dual use (2.4%), and nonuse (86.6%). Multinomial logistic regression models identified the relative odds of exclusive and dual hookah and cigarette smoking. Results: Current hookah and cigarette smoking rates were comparably low. Age, gender identity, current substance use, interest in tobacco use information, and student population prevailed as risks and protections for hookah and cigarette smoking. Conclusions: Campus health promotion campaigns may need to tailor messages to AA students, particularly those who use substances, to underscore the health risks of hookah and cigarette smoking.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• college students
• health promotion
• smoking
• tobacco use

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Washington University in St. Louis.

Acknowledgments

We thank the American College Health Association for providing access to the American College Health Association–National College Health Assessment, Survey Period Fall 2012. Baltimore, MD: American College Health Association, Mary Hoban, PhD, CHES, Director; (2013-11-2013). We also acknowledge the helpful comments on earlier abstract versions of the manuscript from the following faculty writing group members, as listed in alphabetical order: Drs. Sheretta Butler-Barnes, Vetta Sanders Thompson, Anjanette A. Wells, and Sha-Lai L. Williams. Findings were presented at the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) Annual Meeting in March 2015. The presentation abstract was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health (2015;56:S119).

Funding

This project was supported in part by Washington University in St. Louis as follows: Chancellor's Graduate Fellowship Program (Jones) and the Brown School Faculty Fund (Cunningham-Williams). Also, the first author was selected to receive an Edie Moore Student Travel Scholarship to present findings at the 2015 SAHM Annual Meeting. The opinions, findings, and conclusions reported in this manuscript are those of the authors, and are in no way meant to represent the corporate opinions, views, or policies of Washington University or the American College Health Association (ACHA). These entities do not warrant nor assume any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented in the manuscript.