Up in Smoke: Vanishing Evidence of Tobacco Disparities in the Institute of Medicine’s Report on Sexual and Gender Minority Health

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a groundbreaking report on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health in 2011, finding limited evidence of tobacco disparities. We examined IOM search terms and used 2 systematic reviews to identify 71 articles on LGBT tobacco use. The IOM omitted standard tobacco-related search terms. The report also omitted references to studies on LGBT tobacco use (n = 56), some with rigorous designs. The IOM report may underestimate LGBT tobacco use compared with general population use.