Smoking & Living in the U.S. — Studies show that Hispanic/Latino adults born in the U.S. have been found to smoke more than those born abroad. Nearly 70 percent of smokers start smoking during adolescence, so Dr. Robert Kaplan and colleagues hypothesized young Hispanics/Latinos born in the U.S. might be at increased risk for taking up smoking compared to those who immigrated to the U.S. They analyzed data from approximately16,000 foreign-born and U.S.-born Hispanic/Latino adults enrolled in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), looking at the age the HCHS/SOL participants began smoking and how old they were when they immigrated. They found that Hispanic/Latino women born in the U.S. were more likely to start smoking as teenagers than those born abroad, and that the risk for foreign-born women to take up smoking increased as they spent more of their adolescence in the U.S. Their findings appear in the American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Kaplan is professor of epidemiology & population health, and is the Dorothy and William Manealoff Foundation and Molly Rosen Chair in Social Medicine. Other Einstein authors include former Einstein data analyst Christina Parrinello, who was first author, and Drs. Carmen Isasi and Xiaonan Xue.
Posted on: Tuesday, March 24, 2015