Study: U.S. Immigration Increases Smoking Among Latinos, Asians

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U.S. immigration may result in increased smoking in Latinos and Asians, according to a new study reported by Science World Report.

The study, led by Rice University, found that Latino immigrant men’s smoking prevalence was more than twice that of women’s (29.5 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively). Smoking prevalence among Asian immigrant men was more than four times that of Asian immigrant women (30.4 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively).

For smoking frequency, Asian men on average smoked 2.5 more cigarettes per day than Asian women, compared with 1.5 more cigarettes per day that Latino men smoked than Latino women.

The study also found that smoking increases with duration of U.S. residence among Asian immigrants (both prevalence and frequency) and among Latino immigrants (frequency only).

Gender differences also exist.

“[Although there] tends to be an uptick in unhealthy behaviors like smoking after migration, patterns differ across ethnic groups and between men and women,” said Bridget Gorman, chair and professor of sociology at Rice and lead author of the study, published in the journal Social Science and Medicine. “In particular, women’s smoking behavior tends to increase more after migration to the U.S. than men.”