This blog post was posted by Cara James on April 20, 2016. It was written by Cara V. James, Ph.D., Director of the Office of Minority Health at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

2011-2022. The tobacco disparities dashboard data utilized the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data to measure cigarette smoking disparities by age, disability, education, employment, income, mental health status, race and ethnicity, sex, and urban-rural status. The disparity value is the relative difference in the cigarette smoking prevalence among adults 18 and older in a focus group divided by the cigarette smoking prevalence among adults 18 and older in a reference group. A disparity value above 1 indicates that adults in the focus group smoke cigarettes at a higher rate, as reflected by the disparity value, compared with the rate among adults in the reference group who smoke cigarettes. A disparity value below 1 indicates that adults in the focus group smoke cigarettes at a lower rate, as reflected by the disparity value, compared with the rate among adults in the reference group who smoke cigarettes. A disparity value of 1 means there is no relative difference in the rate of adults who smoke cigarettes for the two groups compared.

The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions - III (NESARC-III) is a nationally representative survey of 46,500 adult Americans that collected data on alcohol use disorders and their associated disabilities in addition to collecting saliva samples for the purpose of understanding the prevalence, risk factors, health disparities, economic costs and gene-environment interactions related to alcohol use disorders and their associated disabilities.

Results from the study are not yet available. The data collection is also associated with clinical trial number: NCT01273220.