Tobacco Retailer Proximity and Density and Nicotine Dependence Among Smokers With Serious Mental Illness
Menée aux Etats-Unis auprès d'un échantillon de 1 061 fumeurs atteints d'une maladie psychiatrique grave, cette étude analyse l'influence de la proximité et du nombre de débits de tabac sur leurs comportements tabagiques et leur dépendance nicotinique
Objectives : We examined the density and proximity of tobacco retailers and associations with smoking behavior and mental health in a diverse sample of 1061 smokers with serious mental illness (SMI) residing in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Methods : Participants’ addresses were geocoded and linked with retailer licensing data to determine the distance between participants’ residence and the nearest retailer (proximity) and the number of retailers within 500-meter and 1-kilometer service areas (density). Results : More than half of the sample lived within 250 meters of a tobacco retailer. A median of 3 retailers were within 500 meters of participants’ residences, and a median of 12 were within 1 kilometer. Among smokers with SMI, tobacco retailer densities were 2-fold greater than for the general population and were associated with poorer mental health, greater nicotine dependence, and lower self-efficacy for quitting. Conclusions : Our findings provide further evidence of the tobacco retail environment as a potential vector contributing to tobacco-related disparities among individuals with SMI and suggest that this group may benefit from progressive environmental protections that restrict tobacco retail licenses and reduce aggressive point-of-sale marketing. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 12, 2014: e1–e10. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.301917)