Problem/Objective: To present tobacco use prevalence among non-institutionalized adults with disabilities in the United States. Nearly 54 million Americans have some level of disability. Recent evidence indicates that disparities exist in the health status of persons with disabilities as compared to those without. This presentation highlights trends of tobacco use among this population.

Methods: Using aggregated data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 1997-2005, we have created categories of disability: orthopedic, affective, sensory and chronic disease. Data for current and former tobacco users are presented by class of disability, gender, age group, race/ethnicity, education and poverty level. Rolling averages present the prevalence of smoking by disability status over time.

Results: Preliminary results indicate that current smokers with disabilities are more likely to be male, (27.1% vs.25.1%), are of younger age (18-44 years), live below the poverty level (35.2% vs. 31.0%) and are more educated than non-disabled smokers (21.4% vs.18.8 %.) Smoking rates vary by disability category. The affective category had the highest percentage of current smokers across each year compared to the other categories. Aggregating all 9 years, 43.7% of persons with affective disorders were current smokers, compared to 24.7% with orthopedic, 20.0% with sensory and 22.6% with chronic disabilities.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that tobacco use disparities exist among persons with disabilities. Specifically, persons with affective disorders had the highest prevalence of current smoking. Better understanding of tobacco use patterns among this population may inform targeted prevention and cessation interventions for this vulnerable population and health care providers.