While white adults have higher “ever-smoked” rates than minority smoking adults, minorities spend twice as much of their annual medical spending on smoking-related issues, according to a new study.
“To inform new tobacco regulations, we estimate for the first time racial and ethnic disparities in spending and outcomes associated with smoking,” said the study published Friday in the Tobacco Control journal.
These estimates indicate that the cost savings per year for every 100,000 minorities averted from initiating smoking ($134 million) would be 135% more than the cost savings for white adults averted from smoking ($57 million).
Researchers explained that President Joe Biden issued an executive order for cost benefit analyses of new smoking regulations. To conduct the research, scientists used the 2008–2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey linked to the National Health Interview Survey.
“It has been clear for decades now that smoking cigarettes has serious, deadly health effects. The federal government continues to work on encouraging people to quit, or not start using tobacco at all. However, this new study shows how much work there is still to do,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
In addition to finding that minorities spent more on smoking-related medical costs, the study also found that minority adults who smoked had 41% (higher risks of multiple chronic conditions associated with smoking than white adults. More minority adults were also trying to quit smoking as of 2019.
“While the share of white smoking adults trying to quit declined to 53% in 2019, this desire increased to 63% for minorities,” said the study.
Results of the research indicate that minority adults may benefit more than white adults from antitobacco regulations.
“Minority communities have not reaped very much in medical cost-savings from the large reduction in smoking over the decades,” said Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Director Dr. Robert Valdez, co-author of the study. “Our findings will help policymakers conduct cost-benefit analyses that accurately reflect the burden of healthcare costs and adverse outcomes of cigarette smoking on racial and ethnic communities.”