Attitudes about Cigarette Smoking, Perceived Consequences of Smoking, and Seeking Assistance with Cessation among Black and White Cigarette Smokers: A Qualitative Study

Table 1

Participant characteristics ().

Characteristic/variable	Blacks (); M (SD) or %	Whites (); M (SD) or %
Age	48.36 (8.97)	47.91 (9.57)
Partner status
In long-term relationship	27.3%	18.2%
Dating or causal relationship	18.2%	27.3%
No relationship	54.5%	54.5%
Education in years	13.69 (1.59)	14.01 (1.90)
Income per year	40,333 (25,735)	29,000 (13,718)
Cigarettes per day	9 (5.92)	11.1 (5.281)
Age of started smoking	19.36 (4.08)	15 (2.32)
Years of smoking	26.64 (5.50)	27.73 (10.90)
FTND	3.72 (2.60)	4.20 (2.71)
Motivation to quit
Not at all motivated	9%	36%
Not motivated	27%	9%
Motivated	45%	45%
Very motivated	18%	9%
Quit attempts in the past 12 months	2 (2.49)	0.73 (1.27)

Note: the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) is a standard instrument for assessing addiction to nicotine, with a total score ranging from 0 to 10.