Depressive Symptoms and Smoking among US Black Adults: Absence of a Relationship.

Depressive symptoms play a major role in cigarette smoking among US White adults, but it is not known if this holds for US Blacks. Hence, the relationship between depressive symptoms and smoking was examined among 520 US Black adults sampled from 10 randomlyselected community census tracts. Results revealed no relationship between depression and smoking, but education levels did contribute; Black high school drop-outs were four times more likely than Black college graduates to be smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]