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Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians

Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians (AAPINH) are often reported as having the lowest commercial tobacco use rates among people living in the United States.

This can be misleading, due to the large number of diverse ethnic groups being pooled together, which can underreport commercial tobacco use among particular populations of AAPINH.

Many ethnic groups who do use tobacco at higher rates also face language access challenges and limited/lack of insurance.

For example, in California, smoking prevalence among Filipino, Korean and Vietnamese men has been consistently and disproportionately high as compared to the general population, showing "one-size-fits-all" types of intervention strategy for AAPINH is not effective.

Community-based, culturally appropriate, and gender-specific interventions for quitting tobacco might be an option for AAPINH living in ethnic communities facing language barriers.

In Michigan, the MDHHS Tobacco Program faces similar barriers to collecting date on commercial tobacco use and providing diverse services to meet the needs of AAPINH communities.

The MDHHS Tobacco Control program is dedicated to working with national, state, and community-based organizations to gather information on commercial tobacco use among Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians to help make culturally appropriate tobacco services that meet the diverse needs of these communities and improve health disparities.

If you are interested in participating in future collaborative efforts to reduce commercial tobacco use in Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian communities within our state, please contact us at 517-335-8376.

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