tobacco use

Smoking, the leading preventable cause of mortality in the United States, continues to disproportionately impact lower income members of racial and ethnic minority groups. In a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Jason Q. Purnell, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, looked at how perceived discrimination influences smoking rates among these groups. “We found that regardless of race or ethnicity, the odds of current smoking were higher among individuals who perceived that they were treated differently because of their race, though racial and ethnic minority groups were more likely to report discrimination,” he says. 

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:’Times New Roman’;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} Missouri has one of the highest statewide smoking averages in the country, more than 23 percent. And racial and ethnic minorities, people with lower incomes and education levels, Medicaid recipients and the LGBT community smoke or experience secondhand smoke at a rate significantly higher than the state average. These findings are highlighted in a recent report by the Center for Tobacco Policy Research (CTPR) at Washington University in St. Louis. The report, “Who is Most Affected? Tobacco-Related Disparities in Missouri,” identifies statewide differences related to who is smoking, who is exposed to secondhand smoke and who is quitting.