Awareness of Smoking Cessation Methods among LGBT and heterosexual individuals

Background: It is well documented that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) individuals smoke at higher rates than heterosexuals. However, little is known about their awareness of smoking cessation methods.

Methods: Using the National Adult Tobacco Survey, a nationwide survey (N=118,581) of non-institutionalized adults in the United States. We compared LGBT females and males to their heterosexual counterparts on: quitline awareness, quitline use, provider recommendations to stop smoking, and health insurance coverage of smoking cessation.

Results: More female sexual minorities (78.5%) than heterosexual females (66.5%) were aware of the quitline (p<.05), whereas more heterosexual males (83.9%) were aware than male sexual minorities (66.7%) (p<.001). There were no differences in quitline use (female LBT: 3.8%, female heterosexual: 3.6% and male GBT: 2.7%, male heterosexual: 2.5%) and provider recommendations (female LBT: 66.9%, female heterosexual: 66.6%, and male GBT: 69.4%, male heterosexual: 68.5%) or health insurance coverage of smoking cessation among females (female LBT: 28.1%, female heterosexual: 24.3%). More male sexual minorities (30.9%) reported health insurance coverage of smoking cessation than male heterosexuals (24.6%, p<.01).

Discussion/Conclusion: Results indicate that sexual minorities are similarly aware or more aware of smoking cessation methods than heterosexuals. Findings suggest that innovative cessation interventions for sexual minorities, such as de-normalize smoking in LGBT environments (e.g., bars, Pride festivals), are needed to address their high rates of smoking.