Addressing social and cultural disparities in tobacco use

Disparities in smoking as a function of ethnicity exist, but part of that d isparity appears to be mediated by education level. Smoking prevalence diff erences by ethnicity disappear or decrease substantially when controlling f or education level. Nonetheless, ethnicity remains an important considerati on when striving to understand the mechanisms associated with smoking, as w ell as in the development of smoking prevention and treatment programs. In this paper, the complex interrelationships among ethnicity, social class, a nd smoking are discussed in brief, and a framework for developing a systema tic means of addressing social disparities in tobacco use is described. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.