Cigarette Smoking Among Native and Foreign-Born African Americans

Physical and Mental Health Characteristics of U.S. and Foreign-Born Adults: United States, 1998-2003

“…The prevalence of chronic diseases such as hypertension and cardiovascular diseases was also lower among immigrant black adults than their native-born counterparts. These findings are consistent with the results of previous studies on immigrant black adults (8,20,21).…”

“…These differences may also reflect nativity differences in behavioral, cultural, and lifestyle factors such as smoking, physical activity, dietary habits, and nutrition, which are known to have an effect on health outcomes (20,26,27). The comparatively negative health outcomes among U.S.-born black adults may be related to social factors such as race/ethnicity discrimination, lower educational attainment, lower income, and higher poverty compared to immigrant black adults (20,21).…”

Health Status, Health Insurance, and Health Care Utilization Patterns of Immigrant Black Men

“…This finding is consistent with the results of King et al, who published 1 of the few studies on the health risk behaviors of Black immigrants. 34 Examining data from the 1990-1994 NHIS, they found that foreign-born Black men were substantially less likely to smoke compared with USborn Black men. They also found that more recent immigrants (those who had been in the United States for less than 15 years) were less likely to smoke than were immigrants who had been in the United States for longer periods.…”

“…Several studies have suggested that sociocultural variables may strongly influence the health and the health behaviors of foreignborn persons. 18,19,34,43 For example, cigarette smoking is less prevalent among African-and Caribbean-born Blacks than among US-born Blacks, which may be attributable to a strong cultural attitude toward smoking that is retained despite migration outside the country of birth. 34 Additional variables, including lifestyle factors, dietary habits, social support networks, and cultural affiliations, also might play a role in explaining why foreign-born Black men appear to enjoy health advantages that their US-born counterparts do not.…”

Challenges in Understanding Disparities in Drug Use and its Consequences

“…For example, although Asians are consistently shown to have lower prevalence of alcohol use than other racial/ethnic groups, 27,28 within Asians, native Hawaiians have the higher alcohol consumption rate, followed by Hapahaoles-Japanese; persons of Chinese ancestry have the lowest prevalence of alcohol consumption. 29 Similarly, although the prevalence of smoking for Hispanics is lower than that for Blacks or Whites, and the Hispanics who smoke tend to smoke fewer cigarettes a day, [30][31][32] among Hispanics, Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans are more likely to smoke than Mexican Americans. [32][33][34] This is in contrast to illicit drug use, where a study of marijuana use among high-school seniors showed that marijuana prevalence was higher among Mexican Americans than among Puerto Ricans, although both these groups had lower marijuana prevalence than Whites.…”