Tobacco—not for the body: epidemiologic understanding of tobacco use among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a Mormon perspective

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: The role of religion as a factor affecting smoking has received very little attention in epidemiologic research despite other risk factors for smoking being well-documented and thoroughly researched. Previous research on the intersection of tobacco use and religion has focused primarily on the global faiths of Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. This paper attempts to describe why members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abstain from tobacco use, by addressing the current state and landscape of epidemiologic literature from a Mormon perspective. The methodology to prepare this manuscript was a hand search performed in October 2021 using the Google Scholar portal for combinations of the terms “Mormon”, “health”, “public health”, “tobacco”, “nicotine”, and “addiction”. Inclusion criteria did not include any time limits, thus many of the identified articles were performed prior to the year 2000. Key informant interviews and personal experience with the subject matter also guided construction of the narrative. Latter-day Saint doctrine dictates the complete abstinence of tobacco along with abstinence from alcohol and certain other substances in a revelation known as the Word of Wisdom, which is recorded in one of the faiths standard works of scripture. While the Church focuses its attention on addiction recovery services, individual members of the Church participate in charitable organizations like the Church’s Relief Society and minister one-by-one to those in need. Beyond individual gains, community tobacco abstinence, as is practiced by Latter-day Saints, has notable and quantifiable advantages for population health. In large part due to the many social aspects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as with other Christian denominations, tobacco use decreases with regular church attendance while tobacco cessation increases. Public health and tobacco control are intimately connected to faith and spirituality within the context of the Church of Jesus Christ.