13, 14 Quit rates can be significantly improved with the nicotine transdermal patch, which has been studied extensively in smoking cessation trials largely composed of white, middle-class smokers. smokers, without any smoking cessation intervention, the annual spontaneous quit rates range from 2% to 5%. 9 Although African Americans are more likely than white smokers to have quit for at least 1 day during the previous year, 10 and to be confident that they will be abstinent at 1 year, 11 African Americans who attempt to quit are significantly less likely than whites to remain abstinent for 1 year or more, even after adjustment for socioeconomic factors. When compared with whites, African Americans smoke fewer cigarettes, 8 and are less likely to be heavy smokers and more likely to smoke mentholated and higher tar and nicotine brands. Moreover, whites and African Americans have significantly different smoking behaviors, so that findings from previous smoking cessation studies may not be generalizable to African-American smokers.

7ĭespite such high smoking rates among inner-city African Americans, research in smoking cessation has been conducted almost exclusively in white, middle-class populations. 5 6, 5 – 7 In Harlem, prevalence rates reported for African–American men have been as high as 60% in health care settings and 52% in housing developments. 4 However, prevalence rates for inner-city African Americans remain high, ranging from 33% to 54%. 3 Over the past three decades, smoking prevalence rates for African Americans and whites have both declined, from 46% to 26% for African Americans, and from 42% to 25% for whites. adults smoked, 2 of whom more than 6 million were African American. Tobacco use is the major contributor to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cerebrovascular disease, the three leading causes of death in the United States.

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