Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 27, Issue 3, May 1998, Pages 358-364
Preventive Medicine

Regular Article
Black-White Differences in Cigarette Smoking Uptake: Progression from Adolescent Experimentation to Regular Use,☆☆,

https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1998.0299Get rights and content

Abstract

Background. More U.S. adolescents and young adults have initiated cigarette smoking in recent years. Blacks have been less likely than whites to start smoking, and the gap has widened recently. Reasons accounting for this large black-white difference remain unclear.

Methods. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed using a cohort of 2,467 adolescent smoking experimenters ages 11–18, within the 1989–1993 Teenage Attitudes and Practices Survey, a nationally representative survey.

Results. Among experimenters (1989), 25.7% of whites and 10.3% of blacks had progressed to current smoking (1993). The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) of progression for blacks (vs whites) was 0.33 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23, 0.48]. Adjustment for factors significantly predictive of progression (most parsimonious model) modified the black-white OR to 0.36 (CI 0.24, 0.55), while the full model yielded a black-white OR of 0.39 (CI0.24, 0.66).

Conclusions. The observed black-white difference in smoking progression was only partly explained by the factors evaluated, and some additional factor(s) must be important. Understanding the black-white difference in the progression from experimentation to current smoking may help prevent uptake among all adolescents.

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    This work was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (T32 HL07365) and the Center for Family and Community Health (U48/CCU909706-03), under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cooperative agreement.

    ☆☆

    The authors acknowledge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health for providing data and reviewing the manuscript. This paper was presented at the 69th Scientific Session, American Heart Association, November 10–14, 1996, New Orleans, Louisiana. The presenting author (Dr. Flint) was awarded the 1996 Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award for Investigators in Training by the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention.

    Slade, JOrleans, C, T

    2

    To whom reprint requests should be addressed at present address: Department of Pediatrics (Cardiology), University of Massachusetts Medical Center, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655. Fax: (508) 856-8125. E-mail:[email protected].

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