Surprising Attitudes toward Smoking in Low-Income Neighborhoods
In some of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods, nearly half of all adults are addicted to cigarettes, despite the fact that prices are nearing $9 a pack while many household incomes are below $15,000.
Susan Lampert Smith of the University of Wisconsin-Madison news writes that a Wisconsin research project has revealed some surprising misconceptions that may reinforce tobacco’s hold on the poor.
Dr. Bruce Christiansen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (CTRI) set out to discover attitudes about smoking among a group of low-income people in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city.
The “ZIP Code” project is a community-based research project that includes the Salvation Army of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan and the Vincent Family Resource Center and is supported by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s Wisconsin Partnership Program.
Through a household survey, this project interviewed 654 randomly selected smokers in some of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods.
Of those surveyed, it was found that 42 percent of adults smoke, and that smokers perceive that most other people also smoke. Neighborhood residents estimated that an average of 73 percent of adults smoke; in reality, the number nationwide is about 20 percent, and less than 15 percent of college-educated people smoke.
More than 60 percent of those surveyed generally approved of smoking as long as it didn’t affect others (for example, if one smokes outside or away from children). Most people also thought that “willpower” was the best way to quit, and didn’t know about the most effective smoking cessation aids.
Forty-eight percent thought that medications to help people stop smoking are more dangerous than continued smoking. And 56 percent had not heard of the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line that provides free coaching and a free starter kit of medicines.
Finally, almost 38 percent had never tried to quit smoking—a large number compared to most groups of smokers.
Christianson says that because the survey was administered in homes during weekdays, those who took the survey represented “the poorest of the poor,” with 68 percent reporting household incomes of less than $15,000 a year.
“There’s an ugly truth behind the good news of dropping smoking rates—while smoking rates have dropped overall, we’ve left some populations behind,’’ says Dr. Christiansen, who manages the Milwaukee research office of CTRI.
His research findings in Milwaukee are also true nationwide: the poor, the poorly educated, and those with mental illness or other addictions all smoke at rates much higher than average.
But his studies among the poor in Wisconsin also point to some solutions. For one thing, because many have never tried to quit, their numbers are likely to include those who find treatment effective.
“Personally, I’m encouraged by that,” Christiansen says. “If we can just get them to use evidence-based treatment, many of them will succeed.”
Tags: nicotine addiction, smoking, treatment
