LOS ANGELES (AP) – California’s first study of five specific population groups and tobacco use found that gays and lesbians, Marines and Korean men had higher smoking rates than the state as a whole.

The Department of Health Services last week released the results of the separate studies it commissioned in 2003 and 2004 involving about 2,100 to 3,000 people from each group.

None of the studies suggested explanations for the divergent rates of tobacco use.

But they do suggest that the state’s anti-tobacco education campaigns have more work to do, officials said.

“We must continue our efforts so all of our communities can avoid the disease and death caused by tobacco addiction,” health department Director Sandra Shewry said in a statement.

A study of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Californians found that nearly a third of those surveyed smoked: 30.4 percent compared to about 15.4 percent for the general adult population in California.

“The data for lesbian and bisexual women is even worse,” said Larry Bye, vice president of the Field Research Corp., which assisted in the studies. “Lesbian and bisexual women are smoking at almost three times the rate of women in general.”

Another study found that nearly 27 percent of Marines stationed in the state smoked, well above the average of about one in five for the Navy and the even lower figures for the Army and Air Force.

Military personnel of higher rank tended to smoke less, at 2 percent for senior officers. But the rate was 29.5 percent at the junior enlisted level.

The study only examined active duty personnel stationed in California.

Other results:

- More than one in four Korean men smoked, a figure nearly twice that for all California men. However, the figure declined among men who were more culturally assimilated, meaning they had been in the United States longer and had a better command of English.

The opposite was true for Korean women. Only 4.3 percent of Korean women smoked overall but the figure increased among the assimilated, the study found.

“For women, English fluency or acculturation can be a risk factor for starting smoking,” said Dr. Moon Chen, a health expert for the University of California, Davis Cancer Center.

There is a social norm against women smoking in Korea and immigration may loosen those social restrictions, Chen said.

- Chinese and Asian Indian populations had relatively low smoking rates, at 7.7 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. However, Chinese men were seven times more likely than women to smoke.

Among Asian Indians, men were about four and a half times as likely to smoke.