Menthol Cigarette Use Among African Americans Carrie Hinterthuer, MPH 1, Daphne Kuo, PhD 1, Randall Glysch, MS 2, Karen Palmersheim, PhD 1 Background The Minority Health and Tobacco Survey– African Americans was used for these analysis. Data were collected during October 2007 through April 2008 via a telephone interview of randomly selected households. The survey instrument included questions that asked respondents about their past and current cigarette use, whether current smokers were smoking menthol cigarettes, and their reasons for smoking menthol cigarettes. The study included 640 people. While the sample was intended to be statewide, 97% of the sample resided in Milwaukee County. This is due to the high density of African Americans in the Milwaukee area. Findings In , 24% of African Americans reported being current smokers, and 92% of current smokers reported using menthol cigarettes (Figures 1 and 2). The prevalence of menthol cigarette use was high (ranging from 83% to 97%) regardless of age, educational attainment, sex and level of smoking (Figures 3-6). The most common reason reported for using menthol cigarettes was that they taste better than non-menthol cigarettes and the second most common reason was initiation, indicated by respondents reporting menthol cigarettes were what the used when they started smoking (Figure 7). Research indicates that mentholated cigarettes are associated with worse smoking-related health outcomes compared to smoking non-mentholated cigarettes. The Surgeon General has reported that about 75% of African American smokers use menthol cigarettes. By comparison, approximately 20-30% of white smokers use menthol cigarettes, and roughly 28% of Hispanic smokers use mentholated cigarettes. Further, mentholated cigarettes make up approximately 27% of the cigarette market. Studies suggest that marketing has had a disparate impact on the utilization of menthol cigarette among various socio- demographic groups. Based on prior research, we expected to find a high percentage of African Americans in Wisconsin smoking mentholated cigarettes. However, the prevalence of African American menthol cigarette use in this study, 92%, was higher than national estimates (69%-78%). Analyses revealed that, among current smokers, menthol cigarette use is common across all age, sex, educational, and smoking groups. Further, amongst the variety of reasons for using mentholated cigarettes, the most prevalent reason was the better taste of menthol. This, in combination with the second most common reason given, “It’s what I started with,” suggests that the marketing of menthol cigarettes to African American communities has had an impact. Conclusions 1 University of Wisconsin Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center, Tobacco Surveillance and Evaluation Program 2 Wisconsin Division of Public Health, Department of Health Services This research was supported by the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, Bureau of Community Health Promotion, Division of Public Health, Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Methods Results For Correspondence: Karen Palmersheim, PhD, 370 WARF Building, 610 N. Walnut St., Madison, WI