Social Support and Smoking among Midwest LGBT Adults

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations have smoking rates twice that of their heterosexual counterparts. To design effective outreach, prevention, and treatments for these individuals, a comprehensive collection of contributing factors is needed. The objective of this dissertation research was to increase understanding of how minority stress, social support, and environmental factors influence smoking behaviors among an LGBT population in the Midwest. This cross-sectional, descriptive study of 135 LGBT adults used an online data collection strategy and multivariate analyses were performed to examine factors associated with current smoking status. Results revealed the current smoking rate in this LGBT population was 30.3% which was greater than one and one half times the smoking rate of the general population in the United States. Depression, anxiety and perceived stress were significantly related to a greater likelihood of smoking. Overall, minority stress was a greater contributing factor than social support to the smoking behaviors of this LGBT population