Naming racism, not race, as a determinant of tobacco-related health disparities.

This issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research includes articles investigating how commercial tobacco product use varies by “race/ ethnicity” in the United States1–4 and a systematic review of factors influencing smoking cessation among pregnant Indigenous women in Australia.5 These articles highlight how, as people engaged in nicotine and tobacco research, we can improve how we engage stakeholders and conceptualize, conduct, and report research exploring racial/ethnic disparities. In this editorial, “tobacco” refers only to commercial tobacco products, recognizing that the tobacco plant is sacred for many Indigenous peoples. We use “race/ethnicity” to broadly represent sociopolitical constructs, recognizing that there are many dimensions to racial/ethnic identity that this conceptualization does not include. There are many important topics that fall broadly under “health disparities research” that we could explore. Examples include how researchers’ racial/ethnic identities affect study design, study conduct, methodologies, and reporting, or how to ensure that the research team and its leadership reflect the Indigenous or racial/ethnic groups under study. Each of these topics merits individual editorials. However, in this editorial, we focus on the importance of studying the structural causes of racial/ethnic disparities in commercial tobacco use and health outcomes. We begin by explaining why explicitly or implicitly framing race/ethnicity as a causal determinant of tobacco-related health disparities is problematic and may impede progress toward health equity. Then, we highlight approaches to investigating the multilevel mechanisms that drive these disparities. We close with brief suggestions for modifying how we conduct research in tobacco-related health disparities.