SMOKING CESSATION TREATMENTS :M EASURING RESPONSES AMONG ETHNIC GROUPS

Few studies have been completed on whether programs or devices are success- ful in encouraging African American and Hispanic smokers to quit smoking. Most of the research has been based on White smokers. This study compared responses to several smoking cessation treatments among a sample of 559 adult African American, Hispanic, and White smokers. Of the sample, 53% were considered abstainers, that is, they did not smoke during the last four weeks of the eight- week treatment program. However, this percentage was different according to race/ethnicity: only 33% of the 126 African Americans were abstainers, as were 41% of the 73 Hispanics, and 60% of the 360 Whites. When we looked more closely at the data, we found that African Americans who were thinner or living with another smoker were less likely to quit smoking than other African Americans. For these smokers, programs that change attitudes about weight and weight gain and household policies against smoking could help them to quit smoking. For Hispanics, older participants were less likely to quit smoking; this may be linked to generational norms or place of birth, either in or outside the United States. Among Whites, those who were confident that they could quit smoking were more likely to quit. For this subgroup, interventions that encour- age self-confidence could increase the number of those who stop smoking. In previous studies on the use of bupropion and the nicotine patch for African American smokers, those who received the patch were twice as likely to stop smoking compared to those who did not receive buproprion or the patch. However, our findings suggested that White smokers may receive more benefit from these types of treatments than do African Americans or Hispan- ics. Researchers should conduct more studies to gain better knowledge of the effectiveness of nicotine dependence treatments by race/ethnicity.