Smoking Outcomes Worse for Minority Adults Versus White Adults

THURSDAY, Dec. 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Minority populations will benefit much more than the U.S. White adult population from antitobacco regulations that reduce smoking, according to a study published online Dec. 5 in Tobacco Control.

R. Burciaga Valdez, Ph.D., from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland, and William Encinosa, Ph.D., from the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy in Washington, D.C., used linked data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2008 to 2019) and the National Health Interview Survey to estimate racial and ethnic disparities in spending and outcomes associated with smoking.

The researchers found that White adults had higher ever-smoked rates, but minority smoking adults had twice as much of their annual medical spending associated with smoking than White smoking adults (25 versus 12 percent). Compared with White adults, minority adults who smoked had 41 percent higher risks for multiple chronic conditions associated with smoking. The desire to quit declined among White adults (53 percent in 2019) but increased for minorities (63 percent). Smoking comprised 7.5 percent of the nation's spending for White adults from 2008 to 2016, and 10.7 percent for minorities, with further declines for 2017 to 2019 (2.5 and 8.9 percent, respectively). The cost savings resulting from any new antitobacco regulation would be $134 million per year for every 100,000 minorities averted from initiating smoking versus $57 million saved annually for 100,000 White adults averted.

"Minority adults may benefit substantially more from antitobacco regulations and past federal cost-benefit analyses would have overlooked this," the authors write.

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