Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine will give a moderated poster presentation at this year’s American Heart Association Scientific Sessions that displays the prevalence of smoking, e-cigarette use and high-risk behaviors among adults who identify as lesbian, gay and bisexual.
Dr. Salim Virani, professor of cardiology at Baylor and the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (IQuESt) at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, and Dr. Mahmoud Al Rifai a fellow in training at Baylor, said the findings from the study show that people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are more prone to report vaping use and risky behaviors than those who identify as heterosexual.
“This is a segment of the community we really need to focus our interventions on especially when it comes to the messaging about the harms associated with e-cigarettes,” Virani and Al Rifai said.
The findings are based on a national survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), which was sent to roughly one million individuals across the United States. The survey asked heterosexual, lesbian, gay and bisexual adults questions on their current use of various substances:
- E-cigarette use
- Cigarette use
- Tobacco use
- Marijuana use
