Learning Objectives: State that access to tobacco products vary with ethnicity/race and poor populations.
Abstract:
Problem/Objective: Smoking prevalence varies for different ethnic groups, races, and income levels. One reason for population disparities may be greater availability of tobacco products. This study investigates whether this availability varies by ethnicity/race and low income.
METHODS: Tobacco product availability was measured as the ratio of licensed tobacco vendors to population within census tracts. Ethnic population proportions were taken from the 2000 Wisconsin census data, and poverty was measured as the proportion of population receiving Medicaid. Three groups of census tracts were analyzed: 1) Milwaukee-Racine consolidated metropolitan statistical area, 2) all other Wisconsin counties in metropolitan statistical areas, and 3) all non-metropolitan counties in Wisconsin.
Poisson Regression was used to estimate the relationship between tobacco vendors, ethnicity/race and poverty, controlling for population size.
RESULTS: There was a significant positive relationship between tobacco vendor availability and both poverty and Native American concentration in each of the three geographic areas. There was a positive relationship between African-American and tobacco vendors per capita in the Milwaukee-Racine area, no relationship in the other metropolitan group, and a negative relationship in the non-metropolitan counties. There was a positive relationship between percent Hispanic and tobacco vendors per capita in both the Milwaukee-Racine group and the other metropolitan group, but a negative relationship in the non-metropolitan counties.
Discussion: Understanding that specific ethnic/racial populations and the poor are exposed to more tobacco vendors underscores the need for greater tobacco-related health resources for these populations.
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