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. 2025 Jan-Mar;24(1):203-223.
doi: 10.1080/15332640.2023.2196645. Epub 2023 Apr 13.

Racial/ethnic differences in the association between menthol cigarette use and mental illness among adults who smoke in the United States

Augustus M White  1   2 , Andrew J Barnes  1   2 , William Garner  3
Affiliations

Racial/ethnic differences in the association between menthol cigarette use and mental illness among adults who smoke in the United States

Augustus M White et al. J Ethn Subst Abuse. 2025 Jan-Mar.

Abstract

Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2012-2018) were used to characterize the association between menthol cigarette use and indicators of Any (AMI) and Serious (SMI) Mental Illness among adults who smoke in the United States. In general, people who smoke menthol cigarettes were more likely to have AMI (aOR = 1.123 [1.063-1.194]) than people who smoke non-menthol cigarettes, but not SMI (aOR = 1.065 [0.966-1.175]). However, among non-Hispanic African American/Black people who smoke, those that used menthol cigarettes had lower adjusted odds of both AMI (aOR = 0.740 [0.572-0.958]) and SMI (aOR = 0.592 [0.390-0.899]) than their counterparts who used non-menthol cigarettes. Results suggest there may be race/ethnicity-specific drivers of the association between menthol cigarette use and mental illness.

Keywords: Menthol cigarettes; mental illness; national survey on drug use and health; race/ethnicity; tobacco use.

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Conflict of interest statement

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. This work was supported by NIH/NIDA under grant U54DA036105 and grant F30DA057047.

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