Smoking Rates Increase With Perceived Racial Discrimination, Study Says: As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rolls out its graphic anti-smoking ad campaign next week, researchers at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis are honing in on what drives people to smoke in the first place.
For racial and ethnic minority groups, discrimination may be a key factor, according to a study of over 85,000 people, which found that the odds of smoking increased among individuals who perceived that they were treated differently because of their race.
In a release highlighting the findings published in the American Journal of Public Health, study author Jason Q. Purnell says the study reveals a potentially high-risk group of individuals who report feeling unfairly treated because of their race and who may be smoking as a means of coping with the psychological distress associated with discrimination.
