Smoking-Attributable Doctor Visits and Emergency Room Utilization and Costs by California's Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community.

The lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community is known to smoke at greater rates than the general population, but there has been no study estimating the impact of cigarette smoking on healthcare utilization and costs in the LGB population. Using data from the 2005-2014 California Health Interview Surveys, we determine smoking-attributable healthcare utilization and costs among California's LGB-identified community. Our findings indicate that lesbian/bisexual women who smoke incur excess doctor visits and emergency room visits compared to their never smoking counterparts.

Deaths from smoking and from HIV/AIDS among gay and bisexual men in California, 2005-2050.

Introduction: Deaths from HIV/AIDS have long been of concern to the gay community, but less attention has focused on smoking-attributable deaths despite the relatively high smoking rates among gay and bisexual men. This study compared deaths from HIV/AIDS with smoking-attributable deaths among California gay and bisexual men from 2005 to 2050.

Methods: Smoking-attributable fractions (SAFs) were estimated using smoking prevalence for gay and bisexual men from the 2011-2014 California Health Interview Surveys and published relative risks of death.

Sexual Identity Disparities in Smoking and Secondhand Smoke Exposure in California: 2003-2013.

Objectives: To determine smoking prevalence, smoking behavior, and secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB)-identified Californians; compare these with that of heterosexuals; and analyze changes over time.

Methods: We analyzed self-reported variables from 111 965 heterosexual, 1667 lesbian, and 1706 bisexual women, and 79 881 heterosexual, 2505 gay, and 911 bisexual men, aged 18 to 70 years, in the 2003-2013 California Health Interview Surveys.

Results: Sexual minority women had higher smoking prevalence, and female bisexual smokers were less likely to be light smokers, than heterosexuals.

Smoking or My Job? US Media Coverage of Nonsmoker-Only Hiring Policies.

Objectives: Media advocacy plays a critical role in tobacco control, shaping the content of news in ways that generate public support for tobacco control. We examined US media coverage of nonsmoker-only hiring policies, which have little US public support, exploring the extent to which tobacco control advocates and experts have engaged the media on this controversial issue.

Methods: We searched online media databases (Lexis Nexis, Access World News, and Proquest) for articles published from 1995-2013, coding retrieved items through a collaborative, iterative process.

"Tired of watching customers walk out the door because of the smoke": a content analysis of media coverage of voluntarily smokefree restaurants and bars.

Background: News media are key sources of information regarding tobacco issues, and help set the tobacco control policy agenda. We examined US news coverage of voluntarily smokefree restaurants and bars in locales without mandatory policies to understand how such initiatives are perceived.

Methods: We searched three online media databases (Access World News, Lexis Nexis, and Proquest) for all news items, including opinion pieces, published from 1995 to 2011.

"A breath of fresh air worth spreading": media coverage of retailer abandonment of tobacco sales.

Objectives: Media play an important role in the diffusion of innovations by spreading knowledge of their relative advantages. We examined media coverage of retailers abandoning tobacco sales to explore whether this innovation might be further diffused by media accounts.

Methods: We searched online media databases (Lexis Nexis, Proquest, and Access World News) for articles published from 1995 to 2011, coding retrieved items through a collaborative process.

"They're going to die anyway": smoking shelters at veterans' facilities.

Military personnel and veterans are disadvantaged by inadequate tobacco control policies. We conducted a case study of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) effort to disallow smoking and tobacco sales in VA facilities. Despite strong VA support, the tobacco industry created a public relations-focused grassroots veterans' opposition group, eventually pushing the US Congress to pass a law requiring smoking areas in every VA health facility.

Forcing the Navy to sell cigarettes on ships: how the tobacco industry and politicians torpedoed Navy tobacco control.

In 1986, the US Navy announced the goal of becoming smoke-free by 2000. However, efforts to restrict tobacco sales and use aboard the USS Roosevelt prompted tobacco industry lobbyists to persuade their allies in Congress to legislate that all naval ships must sell tobacco. Congress also removed control of ships' stores from the Navy.

"Willful misconduct": how the US government prevented tobacco-disabled veterans from obtaining disability pensions.

In this descriptive case study, we analyze the unsuccessful struggle to access disability pensions by veterans sickened by tobacco use begun during service. Drawing on tobacco industry documents and other material, we show how the US government, tobacco industry, and veterans' organizations each took inconsistent positions to protect their interests. Congress and Department of Veterans Affairs leadership, concerned about costs, characterized veterans' smoking as "willful misconduct," thereby contradicting the government's position in a federal lawsuit that tobacco companies addicted smokers.

"If you know you exist, it's just marketing poison": meanings of tobacco industry targeting in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

In the public health literature, it is generally assumed that the perception of "targeting" as positive or negative by the targeted audience depends on the product or message being promoted. Smoking prevalence rates are high among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, but little is known about how they perceive tobacco industry targeting. We conducted focus groups with LGBT individuals in 4 US cities to explore their perceptions.

Is tobacco a gay issue? Interviews with leaders of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

This study examined the extent of tobacco industry funding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisations and whether leaders of these organisations thought tobacco was a priority health issue for their community. We interviewed leaders of 74 LGBT organisations and publications in the USA, reflecting a wide variety of groups. Twenty-two percent said they had accepted tobacco industry funding and few (24%) identified tobacco as a priority issue.

Pictures worth a thousand words: noncommercial tobacco content in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual press.

Smoking prevalence in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community is higher than in the mainstream population. The reason is undetermined; however, normalization of tobacco use in the media has been shown to affect smoking rates. To explore whether this might be a factor in the LGB community, we examined noncommercial imagery and text relating to tobacco and smoking in LGB magazines and newspapers.

What makes an ad a cigarette ad? Commercial tobacco imagery in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual press.

Objectives: To determine the extent of commercial tobacco imagery in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) press.

Methods: Content analysis of all advertising containing tobacco related text or imagery in 20 LGB community periodicals, published between January 1990 and December 2000.

Results: 3428 ads were found: 689 tobacco product ads, 1607 ads for cessation products or services, 99 ads with a political message about tobacco, and 1033 non-tobacco ads that showed tobacco (NAST).