Immigrants and Smoking: Revealing the Hidden Heterogeneity in Smoking Prevalence Rates

Kaari Baluja, University of Southern California
Julie Park, University of Southern California
Dowell Myers, University of Southern California

There is acute interest regarding the health risk behaviors of immigrants as they comprise a growing proportion of the U.S. population. Cigarette smoking among immigrants is one of the most richly complex health behaviors because of its strong cultural and gendered dimensions and its role in disease causation. Due in part to the lack of suitable data, previous research has largely ignored the heterogeneity in tobacco use patterns existing within race/ethnic groups, especially by immigrant status and country of origin. Using the CPS Tobacco Use Supplement's 1995-1996 wave and the newly released 1998-1999 wave, this research finds significant differences in smoking prevalence rates when the rates are disaggregated by nativity and country of origin. Immigrant women, in particular, have much lower smoking rates than non-immigrants. Additionally, large variations exist in country of origin-specific smoking rates. These findings may reveal immigrants' adaptation to receiving communities and the effectiveness of smoking regulations.