Ethnicity and smoking: differences in white, black, Hispanic, and Asian medical patients who smoke.

To describe differences in the attitudes and behaviors of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian medical patients who smoke, we surveyed 2,835 patients of primary care physicians who participated in a controlled trial on smoking cessation. White smokers smoked more cigarettes per day, were more addicted to cigarettes, had more smoking-related symptoms and illnesses, and were more likely to relate smoking to their symptoms and illnesses. Black smokers found less pleasure in smoking, expressed the least concern about the health risks of smoking, but reported the greatest desire to quit and most confidence that they could quit. Hispanic and Asian smokers more often wanted to quit to keep their children from being exposed to smoking. We conclude that a single approach to helping patients quit smoking is less likely to be effective than one tailored to the ethnic differences among those patients.