Assessing racial differences in lifetime and current smoking status & menthol consumption among Latinos in a nationally representative sample

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the relationship between race and smoking behaviors among Latinos/Hispanics.

Design: Using data from the National Adult Tobacco Survey (NATS), we implemented Log-Poisson regression models for each dependent variable (smoking pattern and menthol cigarette use). Each analysis adjusted for age, gender, marital status, employment status, and socioeconomic status (SES). Final pooled cross-sectional sample included 505 Black-Latinos and 9078 White-Latinos.

Results: While no racial differences were found in lifetime smoking status among Latinos, Black-Latinos had a 16.6% (95% CI: 0.274, 0.057) increased risk of menthol smoking compared to White-Latinos.

Conclusions: The results indicate that menthol consumption is influenced by race among Hispanics/Latinos. To comprehensively address racial disparities among Latinos/Hispanics, further attention needs to be given to racial differences in smoking-related risks among Latinos/Hispanics.

KEYWORDS:

• Race
• Latinos
• smoking
• health inequalities

Acknowledgment

Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The development of the manuscript was partially supported by Cancer Disparities Research Network/Geographic Management Program (GMaP) Region 4 (3 P30 CA006927-52S2), through NCI's Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities.