# Promoting Smoking Cessation among Individuals With Food Insecurity

> **NIH NIH K01** · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $163,971

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Despite overall declines in the prevalence of cigarette smoking, smoking remains the leading cause of
preventable disease and death. Smoking prevalence is also disproportionately concentrated among population
groups that are economically disadvantaged, contributing to an uneven burden of tobacco-related health
problems. Socioeconomic disparities in tobacco use persist largely because economically disadvantaged
smokers are less likely to succeed in quitting than non-economically disadvantaged smokers. Many
economically disadvantaged smokers are motivated to quit, but various life stressors pose significant barriers
to cessation. One of the most stressful conditions in the experience of poverty is food insecurity, or the inability
to afford adequate and appropriate foods needed to live an active and healthy life. Epidemiological studies
have demonstrated that food insecurity is independently associated with increased odds of smoking. However,
proximal factors linking food insecurity and smoking are not well understood, and research has not extended
this association towards informing cessation. Extant literature suggests that there are shared psychological
(e.g., stress) and physiological (e.g., hunger) factors that may predispose food insecure smokers to
encountering difficulties with quitting smoking. The overall goal of this proposal is to build the candidate's
research expertise on the intersection of food insecurity, smoking, and quitting. This award will support the
candidate's career development as a social and health psychologist whose research addresses social
determinants of health to promote smoking cessation among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.
The career development plan includes advanced training and mentorship in (1) social epidemiology, (2)
qualitative research methods, (3) food insecurity and nutrition policy, and (4) smoking cessation intervention
research. Aim 1 of the proposed study will determine whether the experience of food insecurity is associated
with continued smoking among a nationally representative sample of low-income smokers, using extant
longitudinal data from the 2001-2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Aim 2 will target a subset of the local
population with food insecurity—individuals seeking federal food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) in San Francisco, California—to conduct surveys and in-depth interviews on the
lived experience of food insecurity and its association with smoking behaviors and quitting. Aim 3 will develop
and pilot test a smoking cessation outreach program that is delivered to 100 smokers with food insecurity in the
context of SNAP, which provides a novel venue for smoking cessation and health promotion research. Taken
together, this research and training plan will lay the foundation for a planned community-based randomized
controlled trial of a smoking cessation intervention targeting households with food insecurity....

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10241376
- **Project number:** 5K01DA043659-06
- **Recipient organization:** CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jin E. Kim-Mozeleski
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $163,971
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-15 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10241376

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10241376, Promoting Smoking Cessation among Individuals With Food Insecurity (5K01DA043659-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10241376. Licensed CC0.

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