title: Race moderates the effect of menthol cigarette use on short-term smoking abstinence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Food and Drug Administration is in the process of reviewing evidence of the impact of mentholated cigarettes on smoking behaviors and smoking cessation in order to determine if these products should be removed from the market. More empirical research is needed to inform those decisions. The goal of this study was to examine associations of menthol cigarette use with biochemically verified continuous short-term smoking abstinence, and potential moderation by race, among adult current smokers enrolled in a cohort study (N = 183; 57.4% female; 48.1% non-Hispanic Black, 51.9% non-Hispanic White).
  
  
  METHODS
  Continuation ratio logit models, adjusted for age, race, gender, total annual household income, educational level, employment status, and partner status, were used to examine associations of menthol use with smoking abstinence with and without an interaction term for race.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Menthol cigarette use was not significantly associated with smoking abstinence in the sample as a whole; however, there was a significant interaction of menthol use with race (p = .03). Follow-up analyses stratified by race indicated that among White participants, menthol users had significantly lower odds of maintaining continuous abstinence than nonmenthol users (p = .05). Exploratory analyses suggested that tobacco dependence may lie along the causal pathway and partially explain this effect.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  White menthol smokers in this sample were at increased risk of smoking relapse relative to White nonmenthol smokers, at least partially due to greater tobacco dependence. Results should be replicated among other treatment-seeking samples with a greater representation of White menthol and Black nonmenthol smokers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Disparities Research, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77230, USA. Lrreitze@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Lorraine R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Reitzel
authors.forename: Yisheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Diana W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Yumei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Wetter
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Waters
authors.forename: Jennifer I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Vidrine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008610:Menthol / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D062789:Tobacco Products; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D008610:Menthol