African American adolescents and menthol cigarettes: smoking behavior among secondary school students

This paper examines the impact of smoking menthol cigarettes among secondary students, primarily African Americans, across five measures of smoking behavior.

Data were gathered from a 2006 survey of six secondary schools in a large urban area in the southeastern United States. Ordered logit analysis is employed to estimate race and menthol effects on cigarette consumption.

African American youth smoke at lower rates than white adolescents; menthol smokers consume cigarettes at higher rates irrespective of race. Most importantly, there is a strong interaction effect with black menthol smokers demonstrating the highest levels of cigarette consumption.

There is a need to provide adolescent and adult African Americans accurate information on the dangers of menthol cigarettes. Any proposed legislation should consider the special problems of menthol and its relationship to high cigarette consumption, especially for African American adolescents.