Two studies by Rutgers Health researchers show that people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, especially women, respond more positively to tobacco marketing, are more likely to smoke daily, and are less likely to quit smoking. may become more difficult.
The research is Annual Report on LGBTQ Public and Population Health. and Preventive medicine reportuses two large national datasets, including the Population Assessment Study on Tobacco and Health and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, to examine how segments of the LGBTQ population respond to tobacco marketing; We investigated tobacco usage and smoking cessation history.
Olly Ganz, a faculty member at the Rutgers University Nicotine and Tobacco Research Institute and the study's lead author, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, discussed the significance of the findings for future policy.
Why is it important to specifically study how sexual minority people receive tobacco marketing?
Previous research has shown that sexual minority individuals are more likely to use tobacco products than heterosexual individuals. This may be due to tobacco companies targeting this group with advertisements and promotions, but this effect has not been fully studied. The main thing we want to understand in this study is: Given that sexual minority people are exposed to more tobacco advertising than heterosexual people, how receptive are they to advertising? Is there a difference in that respect? advertisement.
What did your research find about tobacco marketing among sexual minority populations?
What is unique about our study is that rather than looking at the LGB population as one group, we were able to focus on subsets of the LGB population: gay men, bisexual men, lesbian/gay women, and bisexual women. is. Considering these subgroups, lesbian/gay and bisexual women are more likely to accept tobacco product marketing overall, bisexual women are more likely to accept tobacco product marketing, but lesbian/gay and bisexual women are more likely to accept tobacco product marketing overall; It turns out gay women aren't like that. Cigars, e-cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco compared to heterosexual women.
Among men, we found that gay men, but not bisexual men, were more likely to accept cigar ads than heterosexual men. They also found that gay and bisexual men were more likely to accept e-cigarette advertisements than heterosexual men.
inside Preventive medicine report The study also examined a subset of the LGB population, but the focus was on tobacco use behavior. What discoveries did you make?
We found that sexual minority women, particularly bisexual women, smoke at higher rates than heterosexual women and have difficulty quitting. Also, the difference in smoking rates between lesbian/gay and bisexual women and straight women is much larger than the difference in smoking rates between sexual minority men and straight men. got it.
These findings indicate that more support is needed to specifically help sexual minority women, particularly bisexual women, quit smoking. This population has unique challenges, including serious mental health issues, and requires more resources and tailored interventions to support them in quitting smoking.
How do these findings influence future policy?
For tobacco control policies and regulations and public education campaigns to be effective, they must be able to identify populations most at risk for tobacco use. We also need a body of evidence that identifies the factors driving increased use among these populations so that effective messages and policies can be developed to directly address those factors.
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References:
- Gantz, O. other. (2024) Differences in tobacco ad acceptability among youth by sexual identity and gender: Results from the Tobacco and Health Study population evaluation. LGBTQ Public and Population Health Records. doi.org/10.1891/LGBTQ-2022-0036.
- Gantz, O. other. (2024). Smoking behavior and nicotine dependence at the intersection of sexual identity and sex in the United States: Results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Preventive medicine report. doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102593.
