Marginalized smokers who don’t count (Literally). Targeting high-smoking groups for cessation

We are all familiar with groups commonly identified through surveys as having the highest cigarette smoking rates in the US. These include people with low education or income, people with mental health problems, American Indians and Alaska Natives, users of other drugs, members of the LGBTQ community, and veterans. There are other groups, many including people from these populations, whose members also have very high smoking rates, but those rates are rarely, if ever, studied and never appear in national surveys. Because they are omitted from national surveys’ sampling frames, they literally don’t count. Prisoners are one example; “sofa surfers” another. This presentation will identify these groups, review what we know about their smoking, and consider why some of these groups might be excellent targets for smoking cessation initiatives. They may be especially receptive to the use of reduced-harm nicotine products as an aid to quitting smoking.