Differences Between Adult Sexual Minority Females and Heterosexual Females on Menthol Smoking and Ot
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Ehlke
SJ, Ganz O, Kendzor DE, Cohn AM.
Differences Between Adult
Sexual Minority Females and Heterosexual Females on Menthol Smoking and Other
Smoking Behaviors: Findings from Wave 4 (2016-2018) of the Population
Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.
Addict Behav. 2022;129:107265. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107265
Background. Sexual
minority females have higher rates of cigarette smoking than heterosexual females.
Additionally, menthol cigarette use disproportionately impacts minority
smokers, including sexual minority individuals. This study examined differences
between sexual minority and heterosexual females on several smoking variables,
including initiation with a menthol cigarette, and past 30-day cigarette and
menthol cigarette use.
Methods. Participants
were female ever smokers (N = 11,576; n = 1,474, 12.7% sexual minority) who
completed Wave 4 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Survey.
Participants reported on the age they began smoking regularly (≤18 years old,
18-24, >25), whether they initiated with a menthol cigarette, past 30-day
cigarette smoking and menthol cigarette use, cigarettes smoked per day (≤10,
11-20, >20), cigarette dependence (smoke ≤ 5 min of waking or > 5 min of
waking), and whether they were a current (someday/every day) or former (no past
year/current use) established smoker (≥100 lifetime cigarettes), or an
experimental smoker (<100 lifetime cigarettes). Chi-square and multivariable
logistic regression analyses examined differences between sexual minority
females and heterosexual females on smoking variables.
Results.
Sexual minority female smokers began smoking regularly at an earlier age and
smoked fewer cigarettes per day than heterosexual females. Sexual minority
females were more likely to initiate smoking with a menthol cigarette (aOR =
1.27), report past 30-day smoking (aOR = 1.36) and menthol cigarette use (aOR =
1.24) compared to heterosexual females. There were no differences on cigarette
dependence.
Conclusions.
Given the high rates of initiation and current menthol smoking, policies to
regulate menthol may decrease smoking disparities for sexual minority females.
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