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Dawson DB, Fletcher TL. The Influence of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Experiences on Cigarette Craving for African American and Hispanic Smokers. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities. 2021 Aug 1; 8(4):1047-1053.
BACKGROUND: Despite African Americans and Hispanics smoking equal or fewer cigarettes than White smokers, they experience more smoking-related diseases and have lower cessation rates, possibly due to cultural stress. This study examined the influence of racial/ethnic discrimination experiences in comparison to a general negative affect experience on cigarette craving among African American and Hispanic smokers. METHODS: African American and Hispanic smokers (N? = 34) completed two writing tasks: one to elicit distressing experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and another to elicit distressing experiences of academic/job-related failure. Participants completed both tasks after being randomized into two groups to counterbalance order of tasks. Participants completed pre- and post-task measurements of cigarette craving and negative affect and were asked to retrospectively rate the level of distress produced by each experience about which they wrote. A series of ANOVAs were computed to assess differences in each condition. RESULTS: Cigarette craving significantly increased from baseline to post racial/ethnic discrimination task and post academic/job failure task (ps? < 0.05). Negative affect did not increase from baseline to post-task for either group (ps? > 0.05). The post academic/job-related failure writing task cigarette craving was significantly related to the distress rating of this task when controlling for negative affect (p? < 0.05) but not the racial/ethnic discrimination task. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest recollection of racial/ethnic discrimination experiences has a similar impact on cigarette craving as recollection of academic/job-related failure experiences. It is important to examine cultural experiences linked to cigarette use among racial/ethnic minorities and continue experimental research among racial/ethnic minority smokers.