Sexual Orientation and Smoking: Results From a Multisite Women's Health Study

Abstract

Although lesbians are believed to be at disproportionately high risk for smoking, few published studies have focused on smoking rates in this population. We examined and compared rates and demographic correlates of smoking among 550 lesbians and 279 heterosexual women in Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and in New York City in 1994–1996 using a self-administered survey questionnaire. African-American lesbians were more likely than African-American heterosexual women or White lesbians to be current smokers. For the sample as a whole, education was the most robust predictor of both current and lifetime smoking. Racial/ethnic minority lesbians with high school education or less were most likely to report both current and lifetime cigarette smoking. The study's limitations are noted.

Keywords:

• sexual orientation
• sexual minority
• lesbian
• sexual identity
• sexual attraction
• cigarette smoking

Notes

¹The journal's style uses substance abuse as a diagnostic category. Substances are used or misused; living organisms are and can be abused. Chief Editor's note.

²A descriptive categorization often used in the literature whose underpinnings and criteria (e.g., theory-based, empirically-based, stakeholder-based, arbitrary) “promise” much but explain little. Chief Editor's note.

³The cyberneticist Heinz Von Foerster posited that there are two types of questions: legitimate questions and illegitimate questions. The former are those for which the answer is not known. An illegitimate question is one for which the answer is known. Heinz Von Foerster, Patricia M. Mora, and Lawrence W. Amiot, “Doomsday; Friday, 13 November, A.D, 2026.” Science, 132, 1960. pp. 1291–1295. Chief's Editor note.