Nicotine Tob Res

IntroductionFor years, national U.S. surveys have consistently found a lower cigarette smoking prevalence among non-Hispanic (NH) black adolescents and young adults than their NH white counterpart while finding either similar or higher smoking prevalence in NH blacks among older adults. Because these surveys do not collect biomarker information to validate smoking self-reports, we also present results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which collects cotinine (a nicotine biomarker) to determine if U.S. surveys consistently show racial differences in smoking prevalence.MethodsWe present NH black and NH white current smoking estimates in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (2001\u20132013), National Youth Tobacco Survey (2004\u20132012), National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2002\u20132012), National Health Interview Survey (2001\u20132013), and NHANES (2001\u20132012).ResultsUsing cotinine by itself or with self-reports to compare smoking prevalence between NH black and NH white males aged 12 \u2013 25 years, no difference in current smoking was found. For male adult 6526 years, all surveys consistently found a higher smoking prevalence among NH blacks. For females aged 12 \u2013 25 years, all surveys found a higher smoking prevalence among NH whites. While inconsistent results across surveys were found for those aged 6526 years, cotinine results showed a higher smoking prevalence among NH black females.ConclusionSome racial differences in self-reported smoking are not confirmed when supplemented with serum cotinine to detect current cigarette smokers. Improving the measurement of current smoking is important to accurately evaluate racial smoking differences.20162017-04-01T00:00:00ZCC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States26980863PMC4809370799