Pill could help curb Wisconsin’s nation-high Black-white smoking disparity | Local News
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A new study showing a pill more than doubles the rate of Black smokers who quit is welcome news in Wisconsin, which has the nation’s highest smoking rate disparity between Black and white residents, UW-Madison researchers say.
Among 500 Black adult smokers in Kansas City, 15.7% who took the smoking cessation pill Chantix along with counseling had quit six months later, compared to 6.5% who got a fake pill and counseling, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The results are significant because Black smokers have lower quit rates than white smokers and higher rates of smoking-related mortality, even though they tend to smoke fewer cigarettes per day, UW-Madison researchers said in a JAMA editorial accompanying the University of Kansas study.
“This finding not only points toward a means of enhancing smoking cessation success among Black individuals, but may also encourage clinicians to more consistently offer such effective smoking treatment to all Black patients who want to quit smoking,” Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, and Timothy Baker, associate director of the center, wrote in the editorial.
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They were joined by co-author Jessica Burris from the University of Kentucky. In a statement, Burris said clinicians are less likely to intervene with lighter smokers — those who smoke 10 or fewer cigarettes a day — even though the study found similar benefit for them from Chantix, or varenicline.
“This may play a role in why Black patients tend to have low use of medications we know can help them quit smoking,” Burris said. “This is an incredible opportunity for clinicians to step up and help all patients quit.”
In Wisconsin, 30% of Black residents and 12% of white residents smoked in 2020, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. That’s the highest disparity in the country, followed by New Mexico, where 26% of Blacks and 14% of whites smoked. The national average was 16% for Blacks and 13% for whites.
Fiore, Baker and Burris said the Food and Drug Administration’s recently announced plan to ban menthol flavoring in cigarettes and cigars could also curb smoking among African Americans. Among daily smokers surveyed, 72% to 79% of Blacks use menthols, compared to 19% to 22% of whites, they said. More than 90% of Black youth who smoke initially use menthols, other research found.
The FDA plan “has considerable potential to prevent smoking initiation by Black individuals,” the editorial authors said.
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