Quit attempts among African American teenage smokers seeking treatment: gender differences.
BACKGROUND
African Americans experience disproportionate smoking-related mortality. Because established smoking during youth predisposes to adult smoking and serious health consequences, characterizing ethnic differences in adolescent smokers' self-quit attempts may inform ethnic-specific approaches to youth smoking cessation.


METHODS
African American and European American teenage smokers applying to a teenage smoking cessation study (2000-2003) provided smoking-related data, including characteristics of previous cessation attempts and prior use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Tobacco dependence was assessed using the Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND).


RESULTS
Of 980 (15.5 +/- 1.3 years, 41.8% African American, 59.9% female) participants, African Americans boys were significantly less likely than European American boys to report a prior quit attempt (OR = 0.35, 95% CI 0.17-0.73, P = 0.0049) or to have used NRT (OR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.36-0.998, P = 0.049) after adjusting for years smoked and FTND score. African American girls were more likely to report a prior request for cessation treatment than European American girls after adjusting for FTND and years smoked (OR = 2.19, 95% CI 1.37-3.48, P = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
While increasing education and outreach to African American boys and enhancing access to formal cessation programs for African American girls who smoke may be beneficial, our findings warrant extension to non-treatment-seeking teenage smokers.
Moolchan
Eric T
ET
Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Research Branch, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. emoolcha@intra.nida.nih.gov
Schroeder
Jennifer R
JR
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*