Fact Sheet: Asian American & Pacific Islander Adults and Tobacco

Prepared in 1999 by: The Center for Social Gerontology, Ann Arbor, MI

The 1998 Surgeon General's Report and this Fact Sheet include in its definition of Asian American & Pacific Islander persons who trace their background to the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent or the Pacific Islands. [Note: data on smoking behavior has limitations, particularly because there are about 32 different national and racial/ethnic subgroups and nearly 500 languages and dialects among this minority category, and smoking patterns vary greatly among subgroups.]

Prevalence of tobacco use:

Health and mortality consequences of tobacco use:

Data in this Fact Sheet has been taken from the following: Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups: A Report of the Surgeon General, 1998; "Cigarette Smoking & Smoking Cessation Among Older Adults: United States, 1965-94" by C.G. Husten et al in Tobacco Control, Autumn, 1997. "Smoking-Attributable Mortality and Years of Potential Life lost -- U.S., 1984," in MMWR, May 23. 1997. Population Projections of the U.S. by Age, Sex, Race, & Hispanic Origin: 1995-2050, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, 1996.