Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D.
Professor of Public Health Sciences & Psychiatry
Penn State College of Medicine
Explaining Racial/Ethnic Differences in
Initiation and Cessation of Cigarette Smoking
Presentation
Abstract
Adult cigarette smoking prevalence trends among African Americans (AAs) and
Whites are similar. However, during the decline in youth smoking that
occurred between the mid-1970s and the early 1990s, the drop in smoking
rates among AA adolescents was more than double that among Whites. These
dramatic racial differences in youth cigarette smoking persist and may even be
widening to this day.
The parallel trend in adult smoking prevalence between AAs and Whites,
together with the dramatic drop in uptake of smoking among AA youth,
implies a much lower rate of smoking cessation among AA adult smokers. This
presentation will describe these differing trends in cigarette smoking by
different ethnic and racial groups in the United States and will attempt to
explain the reasons for these differences. These differences, and their causes,
have implications for tobacco control policy, tobacco product regulation, and
treatment strategies for smokers.
References
Foulds, J., Pletcher, M., Hooper, M., & Okuyemi, K. (2010). Do smokers of menthol
cigarettes find it harder to quit smoking? Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 12
(Supplement 2), S102–S109. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21177366
Oredein, T., & Foulds, J. (2011). Causes of the decline in cigarette smoking among
African-American youths from the 1970s to the 1990? American Journal of Public
Health, 101(10), e4–e14.
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/full/101/10/e4?view=long&pmid=21852
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