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Comparative Study
. 2023 Aug;10(4):1955-1961.
doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01377-5. Epub 2022 Aug 22.

Race, Concern About COVID-19 Discrimination, and Cigarette Smoking Behavior: Comparison Between US Asian and White Adults Who Use Commercial Tobacco

Tina Liu  1   2 , Lilianna Phan  3 , Julia Chen-Sankey  4   5 , Aniruddh Ajith  6 , Kiana Hacker  2 , Bambi Jewett  2 , Kelvin Choi  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Race, Concern About COVID-19 Discrimination, and Cigarette Smoking Behavior: Comparison Between US Asian and White Adults Who Use Commercial Tobacco

Tina Liu et al. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Anti-Asian discrimination incidents in the USA have resurged during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear how concern about being discriminatorily treated due to the COVID-19 pandemic varies between Asian and Asian American (A&AsA) and White adults. We examined A&AsA vs. White differences in concern about COVID-19 discrimination and associations of this concern with changes in cigarette smoking behaviors before and during the pandemic. Data were from a US representative sample of A&AsA and White adults (≥ 21 years) who currently and formerly used commercial tobacco (n = 1052), collected through an online panel oversampling A&AsA adults in January-February 2021. Participants reported their concern, worry, and stress about COVID-19 discrimination and past-30-day cigarette consumption before and during the pandemic. We examined the association between race and overall concern about COVID-19 discrimination, and this concern's associations with changes in past-30-day cigarette smoking consumption, smoking continuation, and return to smoking using weighted multivariable logistic and linear regression models. Overall concern about COVID-19 discrimination was higher (adjusted mean = 1.7, standard error = 0.16) among A&AsA adults who currently and formerly used commercial tobacco than their White counterparts (adjusted mean = 0.60, standard error = 0.04; p < 0.01). Overall concern about COVID-19 discrimination was associated with increased past-30-day cigarette consumption by 26.5 cigarettes (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2-51.9) and 4.4 times (95% CI = 2.3-8.5) greater odds of return to smoking among adults who smoke cigarettes. A&AsA adults who currently and formerly used commercial tobacco disproportionately bore higher concern about COVID-19 discrimination, and in turn could lead to increased smoking behavior and related morbidity and mortality among A&AsA adults.

Keywords: Asian; Asian American; COVID; Discrimination; Smoking; Tobacco.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean overall concern about COVID-19 discrimination score by race. Adjusted for age, sex, education, annual household income, employment status, and marital status. ARC, adjusted regression coefficient; CI, confidence interval
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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