The Contribution of Smoking to Black-White Differences in Mortality

Jessica Y. Ho, University of Pennsylvania
Irma T. Elo, University of Pennsylvania

Smoking has significantly impacted American mortality and continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality today. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has examined the contribution of smoking-attributable deaths to mortality trends among African Americans or to black-white mortality differentials in the United States. Cohort data on smoking prevalence, cessation, and duration suggest that the magnitude of smoking-attributable mortality may differ between blacks and whites. In this paper, we estimate the contribution of smoking to black-white differences in mortality in 1980-2005 using indirect methods and regression models and vital statistics, census, and survey data. Our findings indicate that smoking explains an important part of the black-white gap in male life expectancy at age 50, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, but not among women. Smoking also explains a larger portion of the gender gap in life expectancy at age 50 for blacks than for whites.