Smoking, race, ancestry and prospective abstinence

Abstract

Background: Factors influencing cessation include biopsychosocial characteristics, treatments and responses to treatment. The first cessation trial designed to assess cessation disparities between African American and White cigarette smokers demonstrated that socioeconomic, treatment, psychosocial and smoking characteristics explained cessation disparities. Ongoing translational efforts in precision cessation treatment grounded in genetically informed biomarkers have identified cessation differences by genotype, metabolism, ancestry and treatment. Methods: In planned analyses, we evaluated six smoking-related measures, demographic and socioeconomic covariates, and prospective abstinence (7-day point prevalence at 12 weeks with bupropion, nicotine replacement and counseling treatments). We assessed concurrent and predictive validity in two covariate models differing by inclusion of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) race/ethnicity or genomic ancestry. Results: We studied Pharmacogenetic Study participants (N=456, mean age 49.5 years, 41.5% female, 7.4% African American, 9.4% Multiracial, 6.5% Other, and 6.7% Hispanic). Cigarettes per day (OR=0.95, P<.001), Fagerström score (OR=0.89, P≤.014), Time-To-First-Cigarette (OR=0.75, P≤.005) and predicted urinary nicotine metabolite ratio (OR=0.57, P≤.039) were associated with abstinence. OMB African American race (ORs from 0.31 and 0.35, p-values≤.007) and African genomic ancestry (ORs from 0.21 and 0.26, p-values≤.004) were associated in all abstinence models. Conclusions: Four smoking-related measures exhibited association with abstinence, including predicted nicotine metabolism based on a novel genomic model. African genomic ancestry was independently associated with reduced abstinence. Treatment research that includes social, psychological, treatment and biological factors is needed to reduce cessation disparities.