Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Apr;6(2):356-363.
doi: 10.1007/s40615-018-00532-1. Epub 2019 Jan 4.

Disaggregating Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (AANHOPI) Adult Tobacco Use: Findings from Wave 1 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, 2013-2014

Anh B Nguyen  1
Affiliations

Disaggregating Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (AANHOPI) Adult Tobacco Use: Findings from Wave 1 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, 2013-2014

Anh B Nguyen. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction: Tobacco studies often combine data for Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (AANHOPI) subgroups, masking subgroup differences. This study describes tobacco use (ever use and past 30-day use) among some disaggregated AANHOPI subgroups.

Methods: Data are from Wave 1 of the 2013-2014 Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a nationally representative, longitudinal cohort study of civilian non-institutionalized adults and youth in the USA. The dataset contains a sample of 32,320 adults, of which 1623 identified as being of AANHOPI origin. Asian Americans further identified as being Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or other Asian. Those who identified as Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamarro, Samoan, and Other Pacific Islander were combined into an NHOPI group. Tobacco measures included ever and past 30-day use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars (traditional cigar, cigarillos, filtered cigar), hookah, and smokeless tobacco including snus pouches, and pipe tobacco. Unadjusted and adjusted estimates for tobacco use are reported by AANHOPI membership and sex.

Results: In general, Asian Indians and Chinese had the lowest and NHOPI had the highest tobacco use prevalence compared to other AANHOPI subgroups. Males generally had higher prevalence compared to females. Prevalence varied by AANHOPI membership and tobacco product. Adjusted prevalence estimates were higher compared to unadjusted estimates for many subgroups, attenuating some unadjusted differences found between AANHOPI subgroups.

Discussion: Tobacco use varies by AANHOPI subgroup and product type. Unadjusted and adjusted analyses can be conducted as tobacco use differences in AANHOPI subgroups may be attributed to socio-economic status differences. Treating these distinct subgroups as a monolithic group may contribute to reliance on tobacco prevention and control strategies that may have limited impact on specific subgroups.

Keywords: Asian American; Disaggregated data; Native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander; Population health; Tobacco; Tobacco-related disparities.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Anh B. Nguyen declares that she has no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Srinivasan S, Guillermo T. Toward improved health: disaggregating Asian American and native Hawaiian/Pacific islander data. Am J Public Health. 2000;90(11):1731–4. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nguyen AB, Chawla N, Noone AM, Srinivasan S. Disaggregated data and beyond: future queries in cancer control research. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev. 2014;23(11):2266–72. 10.1158/1055-9965.epi-14-0387. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Holland AT, Palaniappan LP. Problems with the collection and interpretation of Asian-American health data: omission, aggregation, and extrapolation. Ann Epidemiol. 2012;22(6):397–405. 10.1016/j.annepidem.2012.04.001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lew R, Tanjasiri SP. Slowing the epidemic of tobacco use among Asian Americans and Pacific islanders. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(5):764–8. 10.2105/ajph.93.5.764. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kagawa Singer M, Dressler W, George S. Culture: the missing link in health research. Soc Sci Med. 2016;170:237–46. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.015. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources