Racial and ethnic disparities in smoking prevalence in Israel and the United States: Progress to date and prospects for the future

Abstract

An article in this journal in 2016 demonstrated that smoking prevalence among Arab men in Israel is greater than among their Jewish counterparts born in Israel, while the reverse is true among Arab and Jewish Israeli women. This is reflected in lung cancer mortality rates. In the U.S., smoking prevalence in the mid-1960s was 20% higher in African American men than in white men, but has since decreased in both groups, and smoking prevalence in the two groups is now nearly identical. The black-white disparity in lung cancer mortality rates has been reduced by more than half as compared to its zenith in the early 1990s. The strategies employed to achieve these gains will continue to be important going forward, and successful strategies employed in Israel in addressing smoking in the male Arab population will be of increasing interest in the U.S. as its Arab population increases.