I will be presenting the following abstract this year at the Society of Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

Significance: Subpopulations of sexual minorities—particularly lesbian and bisexual women—use tobacco at higher rates than their heterosexual peers. Evidence-based biopsychosocial interventions for tobacco cessation are available; however, research is lacking on the specific barriers to tobacco cessation. The purpose of this study is to describe the psychological, normative, and environmental barriers that disproportionally impact sexual-minority (SM) tobacco users.

Methods: Data from wave 1 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health was used to explore differences by sexual identity across psychosocial barriers and facilitators of tobacco cessation. The analytic sample consisted of current tobacco users (including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, pipes, hookah, dissolvable snus, and smokeless products). The psychosocial barriers/facilitators were modeled as outcomes in regression analyses, which controlled for age, race/ethnicity, poverty, education, census region, and urbanicity and were stratified by sex. Odds ratios were adjusted for the complex study design and nonresponse.

Results: Severe behavioral problems were more common among gay/bisexual men; Bisexual, but not lesbian women, had higher odds of severe substance use problems as well as internalizing/externalizing behaviors. Bisexual men and women reported less normative pressure to quit than their heterosexual peers (no differences in gay/lesbian tobacco users). Gay men had more environmental barriers to quit, being more likely to receive tobacco promotion materials and live with another tobacco user

Conclusion: Several barriers to tobacco cessation were identified as disproportionally impacting SM participants; however, there were considerable differences between SM men and women, as well as between gay and bisexual participants.