Harvard Study: Racism adds pressure that can lead to youth smoking
/- Originally published in Biotech Week February 23, 2005
African American teens and young adults who believe they are the victims of racial or ethnic harassment are twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as those who do not face such harassment.
A study of more than 2100 black college students found that those who perceived harassment were two times as likely to use tobacco products daily as those who reported no harassment.
The increased risk was recorded even after adjusting for such variables as gender, campus residence, grades, occupational status and age at first tobacco use.
Data for the study were drawn from a study of students at historically black colleges and universities in North Carolina. Tobacco use on all of the previous 30 days was considered daily use.
The report's authors, from the Harvard School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, said their study reaffirms previous findings that smoking is a common tool used to deal with the psychological stress of perceived racism.
The study is published in the February 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
