Racial/ethnic differences in the association between menthol cigarette use and mental illness among adults who smoke in the United States

Augustus M White; Andrew J Barnes; William Garner

doi:10.1080/15332640.2023.2196645

Racial/ethnic differences in the association between menthol cigarette use and mental illness among adults who smoke in the United States

J Ethn Subst Abuse. 2023 Apr 13:1-21. doi: 10.1080/15332640.2023.2196645. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Augustus M White^{1

2}, Andrew J Barnes^{1

2}, William Garner³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Behavior and Policy, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
² Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
³ Department of Public Health, University of North Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA.

PMID: 37052141
PMCID: PMC10570396 (available on 2024-10-13)
DOI: 10.1080/15332640.2023.2196645

Abstract

Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2012-2018) were used to characterize the association between menthol cigarette use and indicators of Any (AMI) and Serious (SMI) Mental Illness among adults who smoke in the United States. In general, people who smoke menthol cigarettes were more likely to have AMI (aOR = 1.123 [1.063-1.194]) than people who smoke non-menthol cigarettes, but not SMI (aOR = 1.065 [0.966-1.175]). However, among non-Hispanic African American/Black people who smoke, those that used menthol cigarettes had lower adjusted odds of both AMI (aOR = 0.740 [0.572-0.958]) and SMI (aOR = 0.592 [0.390-0.899]) than their counterparts who used non-menthol cigarettes. Results suggest there may be race/ethnicity-specific drivers of the association between menthol cigarette use and mental illness.

Keywords: Menthol cigarettes; mental illness; national survey on drug use and health; race/ethnicity; tobacco use.

Abstract

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