As overall smoking rate continues decline, disparities remain

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that while the cigarette smoking rate continues to decline in the U.S., the decline is slower for minorities and the poor (Source: “Smoking rates decline, but at slower pace for minorities and poor, CDC says,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 8, 2018)

According to the CDC, cigarette smoking among American adults declined between 2005 and 2016; about 15.5 percent of the total population smoked in 2016, the CDC said. However, the percentages were higher for African-Americans (16.5 percent), those with a GED (40.6 percent), below poverty level (25 percent) and uninsured (28.4 percent) in the United States.

Health disparities that affect smoking rates also are a problem in Ohio. Smoking among Ohio adults decreased to 21 percent in 2015, according to the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System state report. But smoking rates in 2015 were higher among Ohioans who were African-Americans (28 percent), Hispanics (29 percent), had less than a high school education (43 percent) or whose annual household income was under $24,999 (35 percent). All of those numbers were up from 2013's statistics, the behavioral report said.

HPIO’s 2017 Health Value Dashboard identified tobacco use as one of Ohio’s greatest health challenges and found that addressing health disparities in the state will be critical to increasing the state’s overall health value.