Financial strain and smoking cessation among racially/ethnically diverse smokers.

Objectives: We evaluated the influence of financial strain on smoking cessation among Latino, African American, and Caucasian smokers of predominantly low socioeconomic status.

Methods: Smokers enrolled in a smoking cessation study (N = 424) were followed from 1 week prequit through 26 weeks postquit. We conducted a logistic regression analysis to evaluate the association between baseline financial strain and smoking abstinence at 26 weeks postquit after control for age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational level, annual household income, marital status, number of cigarettes smoked per day, and time to first cigarette of the day.

Results: Greater financial strain at baseline was significantly associated with reduced odds of abstinence at 26 weeks postquit among those who completed the study (odds ratio [OR] = 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.62, 0.94; P = .01). There was a significant association as well in analyses that included those who completed the study in addition to those lost to follow-up who were categorized as smokers (OR = 0.78; 95% CI = 0.64, 0.96; P = .02).

Conclusions: Greater financial strain predicted lower cessation rates among racially/ethnically diverse smokers. Our findings highlight the impact of economic concerns on smoking cessation and the need to address financial strain in smoking cessation interventions.