Substance Use
Differences in Prevalence of Current Cigarette and E-Cigarette Use Among Monoracial, Biracial, and Multiracial Asians Ayesha Azeem* Ayesha Azeem Kelvin Choi
Background: Previous studies showed that multi-racial individuals have high prevalence of tobacco use, while Asian individuals have low prevalence. However, how tobacco use varies across monoracial, biracial, and multiracial Asian adults remain unclear. We investigate differences in current cigarette and e-cigarette use among monoracial, biracial, and multiracial Asians living in the US.
Methods: Data from the 2003-2019 Tobacco Use Supplement to Current Population Survey were used to assess Asian identity and current (i.e., every-day or some-day) cigarette (n=32,298) and e-cigarette (n=13,292; assessed since 2010) use. Monoracial identity was defined as Asian only, biracial as Asian and another race/ethnicity, and multiracial as Asian and at least 2 other races/ethnicity. We used weighted multivariate logistic regressions adjusted for demographics to assess the associations.
Results: Current cigarette and e-cigarette use was more prevalent among biracial (15.4%, 2.8% respectively) and multiracial (17.4%, 3.6% respectively) Asians than monoracial Asians (8.3%, 1.0% respectively) (Chi-square test p<0.01). Adjusting for age and sex, biracial (AORcigarette=1.79, AORe-cigarette=2.47) and multiracial (AORcigarette=2.00, AORe-cigarette=3.55) Asians were more likely than monoracial Asians to use both products. Further adjusting for education, income, and citizen did not nullify the association between Asian identities and current cigarette use (F-test p<0.01), but the association between these identities and current e-cigarette use (F-test p=0.21).
Conclusion: Biracial and multiracial Asians use both cigarettes and e-cigarettes at a higher rate compared to monoracial Asians. These prevalence rates are higher than those of the general US population. Further research needs to investigate the life context promoting initiation and barriers to cessation to create effective interventions to reduce tobacco product use among biracial and multiracial Asian adults.