Concentrated Neighborhood Poverty and Smoking Cessation Effort Among Current Smokers in New York City

Background: Smoking rates have long been noted to vary by neighborhood, but little is known about how neighborhood characteristics shape individual smoking cessation effort.

Methods: Using data from the New York Social Environment Study, we analyzed the association between concentrated neighborhood poverty and individual smoking cessation effort among a sub-population of current smokers (conducted in 2005; n = 835). Concentrated poverty was estimated using data from the 2000 US census, and neighborhoods were 59 community districts. Smoking cessation effort was measured using current smokers’ responses to questions about consideration of quitting, past quit attempts, and past quit attempts lasting three months or longer.

Results: In multivariate models that adjusted for individual-level covariates, higher concentrated neighborhood poverty was not significantly associated with higher levels of consideration of quitting (OR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.86, 1.30), past quit attempts (RR = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.99, 1.34), or past quit attempts lasting three months or longer (RR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.79, 1.17).

Conclusions: Concentrated neighborhood poverty was not significantly associated with individual smoking cessation effort, although there was a trend towards more past quit attempts in neighborhoods with higher concentrated poverty. It is possible that individuals in areas of concentrated poverty report a greater number of quit attempts because they are less likely to quit successfully. Future research should be aimed at identifying the nature of barriers to smoking cessation in high-poverty neighborhoods.