Psychological Distress and Smoking Behavior: The Nature of the Relation Differs by Race/Ethnicity

We explored how the relation between psychological distress and smoking behavior differed as a function of race/ethnicity of respondents to a representative national survey. Data from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey were analyzed. Participants reported experiences of psychological distress in the past 30 days, race/ethnicity, current smoking status (smoker/nonsmoker), and number of cigarettes smoked per day. Logistic regression and linear regression analyses were used to examine the influence of race, distress, and their interaction on smoking behavior using survey weighting techniques to account for sampling strategy and nonresponse. For current smoking status, there was a significant interaction between race and psychological distress. Follow-up analyses indicated that psychological distress was related to smoking status for White but not for Black or Hispanic respondents. Similar results were found for number of cigarettes smoked per day among current smokers. The results suggest that the often-reported association between psychological distress and smoking is relatively specific to White individuals. The relation does not appear to characterize either Black or Hispanic individuals.