Background: Sexual minority (SM) (gay, lesbian and bisexual) adults are at higher risk of smoking compared with heterosexual individuals, yet little is known about how the tobacco control policy landscape interacts with sexual orientation smoking disparities.
Methods: We conducted a descriptive analysis to explore differential exposure to smoke-free laws and televised anti-tobacco media using two sources of national data from the United States: Census data on same-sex couple households/all households and data on SM adults/all adults from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We combined this information with variables representing the proportion of individuals in each county covered by smoke-free laws (2013-2017), and average county-level exposure to televised anti-tobacco media campaigns (2013-2015). We compared average coverage levels for SM populations to average coverage levels for the broader US population.
Results: Between 2013 and 2017, same-sex couple households/SM adults lived in counties with higher levels of smoke-free law coverage compared with all US households/adults for workplaces (Census: 71.3% vs 68.0%; NHIS: 70.7% vs 67.9%) and hospitality venues (Census: 82.3% vs 77.0%; NHIS: 80.5% vs 77.2%). There were no consistent differences in exposures to anti-tobacco media campaigns across datasets.
Conclusions: SM adults may be more likely to live in areas with smoke-free laws, compared with the general population. Findings point to the need to examine other potential drivers of smoking in SM populations.
Keywords: disparities; media; public policy.
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