Addressing social and cultural disparities in tobacco use

Disparities in smoking as a function of ethnicity exist, but part of that disparity appears to be mediated by education level. Smoking prevalence differences by ethnicity disappear or decrease substantially when controlling for education level. Nonetheless, ethnicity remains an important consideration when striving to understand the mechanisms associated with smoking, as well as in the development of smoking prevention and treatment programs. In this paper, the complex interrelationships among ethnicity, social class, and smoking are discussed in brief, and a framework for developing a systematic means of addressing social disparities in tobacco use is described. Copyright (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.