Overview of Tobacco Disparities in Colorado

Tobacco is not an equal opportunity burden. Its addiction, toxic smoke exposures, and other impacts are excessively common among some of Colorado's non-white populations and people with social or economic disadvantages. Tobacco burdens include smoking, not quitting smoking, not using help or getting advice to quit, using snuff or chewing tobacco, being exposed to secondhand smoke, and not knowing secondhand smoke is dangerous. Many tobacco burdens originate with cigarette smoking. In the table below, red identifies groups with excessively high rates of smoking in 2005, and bold identifies groups whose smoking rates were significantly improved from their 2001 rates. Estimated rates for 2005 are based on the 2001 population mix of age, sex and ethnicity.

 

Changes in a Burden
Current smoking in 2001 and 2005

group

number
that smoked

2001

2005

2001

2005

wtd.*

adj.¤

all adults

613,984

585,035

19.7

17.3

17.4

SEX

female

296,186

254,686

19.1

15.1

15.3

male

317,798

330,348

20.4

19.5

19.5

AGE GROUP

18-24

126,710

110,311

30.3

24.5

24.9

25-64

450,550

439,946

19.6

17.7

17.7

65+

36,725

34,778

9.2

7.8

8.0

ETHNICITY

white (non-Hispanic)

459,915

407,951

19.1

15.7

17.4

Hispanic or Latino (all)

98,901

126,942

21.8

22.8

22.3

black or African American

19,713

21,583

17.9

18.1

14.7

American Indian

15,444

11,590

36.9

34.9

36.8

Asian American

9,731

5,841

14.5

14.5

17.2

all other

10,279

11,128

35.5

29.9

38.2

INCOME RELATIVE TO POVERTY†

200 or more of poverty

367,731

348,847

16.9

15.3

16.0

100 to 199 of poverty

139,318

104,946

30.7

22.6

24.5

below poverty

42,561

57,393

31.7

32.2

37.6

COMPLETED HIGH SCHOOL†

yes

538,010

504,313

18.9

16.0

16.4

no

75,975

80,722

51.7

35.3

44.2

HAS HEALTH INSURANCE†

yes

394,685

350,664

16.9

14.0

14.8

no

132,135

166,138

38.5

31.1

30.7

DISABLED/UNABLE TO WORK†

no

584,211

549,096

19.2

16.8

16.9

yes

28,460

34,789

49.5

38.7

42.9

RURAL†

nonrural counties

480,621

459,331

19.1

17.0

17.1

rural counties

133,363

125,703

22.7

18.4

18.9

*Weighted rates are based on the 2005 population. Red means significantly higher than average.
¤Adjusted rates are standardized to 2001 on sex, age and ethnicity (as if the population's age-sex-ethnic mix stayed the same from 2001 to 2005). Bold means significantly improved from 2001 to 2005.

People with unknown group status are omitted.