Correlates of Cigarette Smoking among Low-Income African American Women

Objective: This study examines individual and contextual correlates of cigarette smoking in a randomly selected, community-based sample of low-income African American women.

Design: The study sample was selected by using a two-stage area probability sample design. Setting: Participants were recruited from > 12,000 housing units selected from 39 census tracts in the city of Detroit.

Participants: Participants for this study include a total of 921 women who completed the baseline assessment of a randomized clinical trial aimed at improving the oral health of African American families.

Main Outcome Measures: Past month prevalence of cigarette use and number of cigarettes smoked during this period.

Results: Data were analyzed with fixed-effects and multilevel statistics. Social support was the only variable associated, inversely, with current smoking. Self-reported feelings of anger were positively associated, though marginally, with current smoking. Between -neighborhood variance was small, and no neighborhood level variables were associated with cigarette smoking .

Conclusions: Previously established risk factors did not predict cigarette use in this randomly selected, community-based sample of low-income African American women. Further research is needed to identify risk and protective factors that might be unique to low-income African American populations in order to better inform preventive and cessation interventions.