Predictors of Cessation Outcomes Among Older Adult Smokers Enrolled in a Proactive Tobacco Quitline Intervention.

OBJECTIVES: To identify predictors of older adults' likelihood of quitting following engagement in a proactive tobacco quit line. METHODS: Older (>60 years) participants (N = 186) enrolled in a four-session quit line with 8-weeks of nicotine replacement therapy reported demographics, beliefs, and information about tobacco use. Point prevalence abstinence was reported at 3 and 12-months. RESULTS: In final models, endorsement of quitting to take control of one's life and confidence in quitting were positively associated with 3-month cessation (OR = 1.74, 95% CI = 1.16, 2.62; OR = 1.75, 95% CI = 1.21, 2.52, respectively). At 12 months, stronger endorsement of quitting to take control of one's life and decreased nicotine dependence were associated with higher cessation (OR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.05, 2.17; OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.71,0.99, respectively). DISCUSSION: For tobacco cessation among older adults, programs should provide additional support to those with higher nicotine dependence, promote quitting self-efficacy, and encourage quitting as means to gain control of life and health.

Association between Perceived Discrimination and Vaping among College Students.

BACKGROUND: Perceived discrimination has been associated with a higher prevalence of e-cigarette use among adult samples. However, little is understood about the relationship between discrimination and various vaping behaviors among college students. Methods: College students completed an online survey about e-cigarette use (N = 488; 73.2% women; 52.7% White, 30.5% Black/African American, 6.1% Asian, 5.3% other races, 3.9% Multiracial). Participants completed the Everyday Discrimination Scale and identified which of their identities discrimination was most directed toward. Regressions, controlling for significant covariates of outcomes, examined discrimination in relation to e-cigarette ever use, current use, and frequency of use. Results: A higher discrimination score predicted greater odds of ever vaping compared with never use (OR = 1.21, p=.03). Controlling for race (p=.003), greater discrimination was related to increased likelihood of established vaping (100+ times) versus lighter levels of use (AOR = 1.22, p=.04). Discrimination was not associated with likelihood of current vaping (p>.05). Among e-cigarette users, greater perceived discrimination was related to an increased time spent vaping per day (ß =1.69, SE = 0.204, p=.05). Conclusions/Importance: Greater perceived discrimination was associated with more frequent vaping among college students. Current results extend previous findings by suggesting that among college e-cigarette users, those who experience discrimination are more likely to use these products frequently rather than experimentally. Findings can inform the identification and development of resources for students experiencing discrimination to prevent the uptake of e-cigarette use.

Race, sex, and physician communication about tobacco as predictors of adolescent smoking trajectories in a primarily African American sample.

This study identified latent classes of adolescent smoking and examined race, gender, and physician communication (PC) as predictors of class membership. Data were drawn from five waves of a large (N = 3,049), diverse (82.9% African American) study. Several latent classes were identified: nonsmoker, quitter, early-onset escalating smoking, early-onset stable high smoking, late-onset smoking, and declining smoking. Males, Whites, and teens who received PC were more likely to be in classes with more smoking. Our study identified several youth smoking patterns and differences in smoking based on race, gender, and receipt of PC.

Ethnic and Gender differences in Strategies Used by Adolescents when Attempting to Quit or Reduce Smoking.

Few adolescent smoking cessation programs have been able to match the success rate found in adult programs. The current study identified smoking cessation strategies used by adolescents and whether strategies differed as a function of ethnic, gender, or individual smoking-level. Participants were 136 high school students who made an attempt to quit or reduce their smoking. Logistic regressions revealed that individuals making an actual quit attempt and African American adolescents used cessation strategies presumed to be more effective. Adolescents are more likely to use informal cessation methods and may need to be provided with more information on effective quit strategies.

Physician Advice to Adolescents About Smoking: Who Gets Advised and Who Benefits Most?

PURPOSE: The Clinical Practice Guidelines instruct physicians to ask their patients about smoking and to advise against tobacco use. Physicians are urged especially to attend to racial minorities and teens because of these groups' increased susceptibility to smoking. Research on race and physician advice against smoking has produced contradictory findings. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationships between physician communication about tobacco, race, and smoking among adolescents. METHODS: This cross-sectional retrospective study explored (1) racial differences in rates of receiving physician communication and (2) whether the relationship between physician communication and smoking among adolescents was moderated by race. Multiple measures of smoking status were used (e.g., intentions to quit, quit attempts, quits, relapse status). We used a large (N = 5,154), predominately African-American (82.9%) sample of 11th graders. RESULTS: Regular smokers were more likely to be screened about smoking. African Americans were more frequently advised against tobacco than Caucasians. Among African Americans, nonsmokers were most likely to be both screened and advised; among Caucasians, regular were most likely to be screened and advised. Overall, physician intervention was associated with greater benefits for young African Americans, including fewer intentions to smoke, greater likelihood of quitting, and less relapse. CONCLUSIONS: Physician communication about smoking may hold particular promise for African-American teens, reducing health disparities because of racial differences in smoking-related mortality and morbidity. Physicians should be encouraged to screen and advise all young people about tobacco, regardless of race or smoking status.

Religious Beliefs Against Smoking Among Black and White Urban Youth.

This study explores the relation of religiosity to cigarette smoking in a sample of 4776 Black versus White adolescents. Findings show that Black adolescents have significantly stronger religious beliefs against smoking than do White students. Further, teens with strong or very strong religious beliefs are less likely to have smoked. The protective effect of religious beliefs against smoking was stronger for Whites than for Blacks. These findings suggest that efforts in the Black religious community to prevent cigarette smoking have been somewhat successful. Similar efforts in the White community might help stem the tide of tobacco use among White teens.

Conformational effects and stereocontrol in synthesis studies of medium-ring dolabellane carbocycles.

Stereoselective reactions are described which lead to functionalization of the dolabellane skeleton. The stereoselectivity is attributed to conformational effects imposed by the eleven-membered ring. An efficient pathway provides for the stereocontrolled synthesis of nonracemic 6(S)-hydroxy-4(E)-dolabellene-3-one 12 and related derivatives.

Physician Intervention for Improving Tobacco Control Among Parents Who Use Tobacco.

Research has demonstrated that parents who smoke are often inadvertent sources of their children's first cigarettes. Teaching parents to restrict their tobacco may give pediatricians another method for helping parents who are not ready to quit smoking. This purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of a program training pediatricians to discuss tobacco control with smoking parents and to examine changes in parents' tobacco control after the physician intervention. One month after the intervention by pediatricians, parents reported significantly improved tobacco control. They were more likely to count their packs and cigarettes and to keep their tobacco products at work and on their person. Parents reported restricting household control of adult smoking, and children were exposed to significantly less secondhand smoke. These results showed that it is possible to integrate advice about tobacco control into a busy pediatric practice and to improve parents' restrictions of their tobacco products.

Risk factors for smoking among adolescent survivors of childhood cancer: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined risk factors for smoking among adolescent survivors of childhood cancer. The present study reports on the rate of smoking and identifies factors associated with smoking in a sample of adolescent survivors from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS). PROCEDURE: Participants included 307 adolescent survivors and 97 healthy siblings (ages 14-20) who completed a self-report survey of health, quality of life, and health behaviors. RESULTS: Smoking rates did not differ significantly between survivor and sibling groups (ever smokers: 28% vs. 33%, recent smokers: 10% vs. 9%, respectively). Ever smoking was significantly associated with peer smoking, smokers in the household, binging, suicidal behavior, and no history of CRT. There were significant interactions of peer smoking with gender and CRT for ever smoking and with binging for recent smoking. Recent smoking was more likely for survivors with other household smokers (RR=2.24, CI=1.21-4.16), past suicidality (RR=1.89, CI=1.00-3.56), and no CRT (RR=2.40, CI=1.12-5.17). Among survivors with few smoking friends, ever smoking was more likely for survivors with no CRT (RR=4.47, CI=1.43-13.9), and recent smoking was more likely among survivors who binged (RR=3.37, CI=1.17-9.71). CONCLUSIONS: Despite the health risks associated with survivorship, nearly one in three adolescent survivors of childhood cancer has smoked. Exposure to other smokers, in particular, appears to increase the likelihood of smoking for some survivors. Providing smoking cessation programs targeted to family members, helping survivors choose non-smoking friends, and teaching ways to resist smoking influences from peers may be important pathways for smoking prevention with adolescent survivors.

Physician communication regarding smoking and adolescent tobacco use.

BACKGROUND: Physician advice increases quit rates 1% to 3% above unassisted quit rates among adults, an increase sufficient to be ranked as a high-priority, evidence-based preventive service. However, there is little research on the potential impact of physician advice on adolescent smoking. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between recalled physician communication and adolescents' attitudes toward smoking, knowledge about smoking, intentions to smoke, tobacco use, and quitting behaviors. METHODS: This study was a retrospective observational study of 5154 students (82.9% black, 17.1% white) from an urban, mid-South school system. Outcome variables included adolescents' self-rated attitudes toward smoking, knowledge about smoking, intentions to smoke, tobacco use, and quitting behaviors. RESULTS: Physician advice and the combination of screening and advice were associated with healthier attitudes about smoking. Physician screening and advice were also associated with a more accurate knowledge regarding tobacco-related damage. Among current smokers, recalled physician advice was also associated with reduced intentions to smoke in 5 years. Importantly, advised teens were more likely to plan to quit smoking in 6 months. Furthermore, teens who were screened by their physician reported significantly more quit attempts than those who were neither screened nor advised (P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: Physician's tobacco-related interactions with adolescents seemed to positively impact their attitudes, knowledge, intentions to smoke, and quitting behaviors. Brief physician interventions have the potential to be a key intervention on a public health level through the prevention, cessation, and reduction of smoking and smoking-related disease.

Attentional and executive dysfunction as predictors of smoking within the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort.

INTRODUCTION: Previous research has suggested that childhood cancer survivors initiate smoking at rates approaching those of healthy individuals, even though smoking presents unique risks to survivors. The present study explores whether the attentional and executive functioning (EF) deficits associated with cancer and treatment place survivors of childhood cancer at increased risk for smoking. METHODS: Data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study were examined to identify concurrent and longitudinal correlates of tobacco use. We explored whether childhood attention problems and adulthood executive dysfunction were associated with smoking among adult survivors of childhood cancer. RESULTS: Childhood attention problems emerged as a striking predictor of adult smoking nearly a decade later on average. Nearly half (40.4%) of survivors who experienced attention problems in childhood reported a history of smoking, a significantly higher rate of ever smoking, than reported by those without childhood attention problems (relative risk [RR] = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.31-1.79). Furthermore, they were nearly twice as likely to be current smokers in adulthood compared with those without childhood attention problems (RR = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.38-2.11). Similar associations were found between components of adult executive dysfunction and adult smoking. DISCUSSION: Childhood cancer and treatment are associated with subsequent deficits in attention and EF. Early detection of these deficits will allow clinicians to identify patients who are at increased risk for smoking, an important step in promoting and maintaining health in this medically vulnerable population.

Anti-Smoking Communication to Preadolescents with and without a Cancer Diagnosis: Parents and Healthcare Providers as Important Communicators.

A cancer diagnosis does not prevent smoking among pediatric oncology patients, and anti-smoking communications among parents and health care providers have been proposed as influencing smoking outcomes in this group. Anti-smoking communications were compared among 93 preadolescents with cancer and 402 controls. After adjusting for demographics and covariates, preadolescents with cancer were less likely than control participants to report receipt of anti-smoking messages from physicians and parents, and recalled more messages >/= 4 months post-diagnosis as compared to 1-3 months. Should anti-tobacco communications prove to influence smoking outcomes, parents and physicians may be uniquely positioned to provide smoking prevention interventions to these patients.

Developing smoking cessation programs for chronically ill teens: lessons learned from research with healthy adolescent smokers.

OBJECTIVE: Medically fragile teens who smoke need access to smoking cessation programs, because they are at even higher risk than their healthy peers for smoking-related complications. METHODS: To date, no studies on the outcome of smoking cessation programs for medically ill teens have been conducted. To suggest directions for future research, we turn to the literature on smoking cessation in the general population of teens and occasionally to the literature on adult smokers. RESULTS: Four areas are explored: (a) the prevalence of unaided cessation in healthy teens; (b) the outcomes of various treatments for smoking cessation in healthy adolescents; (c) special issues that should be considered when designing programs for medically ill teens; and (d) lessons learned from previous research. CONCLUSIONS: Medically ill teens face a number of medical, emotional, social, and developmental challenges that can affect the quitting process. Research is sorely needed to address the unique needs of this population.

Changes in adolescents' sources of cigarettes.

PURPOSE: No previous research has tracked changes in teen sources for tobacco. Such information might help public health officials to target tobacco control efforts more precisely. This investigation used a two-year longitudinal design to determine (1) how adolescents' sources change and (2) whether the timing of smoking onset and duration of tobacco use predict the number and types of sources accessed. METHODS: A survey assessing usual sources of cigarettes and related variables was administered to 4461 seventh-graders annually. Of the target population, 79% provided baseline data, and 64.2% participated in all surveys. RESULTS: At baseline, 30% of the 1144 smokers got cigarettes from peers, compared with 11% using stores, 6% using vending machines, and 17% who stole them. Age of smoking onset did not predict the number or types of sources teens accessed. We did, however, find a significant effect of duration of smoking, showing that more practiced smokers were more likely to get cigarettes both from stores and from their friends. Further, the longer students smoked, the more likely they were to have friends who smoked. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that the means through which teens got their first cigarettes were similar, regardless of when smoking onset occurred. In contrast, as teens became more established smokers, they increased the number of sources they used and relied more on both stores and peers. Once adolescents become smokers, they form a social network of fellow smokers who support their habit, making it even more difficult to quit.

Ethnic differences in predictors of adolescent smoking onset and escalation: a longitudinal study from 7th to 12th grade.

The present study sought to determine whether risk factors for cigarette smoking onset have a stronger influence on Black versus White children, and whether those patterns differ for nonsmokers versus experimental smokers. As part of a larger study, 5,213 seventh graders were surveyed annually for 5 years. The survey instrument assessed cigarette smoking, along with a variety of background variables thought to influence smoking. Results indicated that rebelliousness predicted smoking onset for Black nonsmokers; peer modeling was more influential for Whites. For both ethnicities, socially isolated children were at increased risk. The variables that predicted the shift from experimental to regular smoking were for the most part different from those that predicted smoking onset. Specifically, youths who lived with smokers, viewed smoking as a means to a goal, and experienced few adverse physiological effects of smoking were more likely to increase their cigarette consumption. Overall, we found that, contrary to previous research, risk factors for smoking differed across ethnicity. Further, smoking onset appears to be shaped by forces different from those that accelerate consumption.

Physical activity in relation to all-site and lung cancer incidence and mortality in current and former smokers.

Increased physical activity has been associated with a reduction in the incidence and mortality from all-site cancer and some site-specific cancers in samples of primarily nonsmoking individuals; however, little is known about whether physical activity is associated with similar risk reductions among smokers and ex-smokers. This study examined physical activity in relation to all-site cancer and lung cancer incidence and mortality in a sample of current and former smokers (n = 7,045; 59% male; 95% Caucasian; mean age, 63 years) drawn from the beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial, a lung cancer chemoprevention trial. Hazard rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals associated with a 1 SD increase in physical activity were 0.86 (0.80-0.94) for all-site cancer only among men, 0.84 (0.69-1.03) for lung cancer only for younger participants, 0.75 (0.59-0.94) for cancer mortality among younger participants and 0.68 (0.53-0.89) among women, and 0.69 (0.53-0.90) for lung cancer mortality only among women. These results suggest that incidence may be more attenuated by physical activity for men and mortality more attenuated for women. Effects may be more pronounced for younger people and may differ inconsistently by pack-years of smoking. Physical activity may play a role in reducing cancer risk and mortality among those with significant tobacco exposure. Prospective studies using more sophisticated measures of physical activity assessed at multiple time points during follow-up are needed to corroborate these associations.

The reliability and predictive value of adolescents' reports of initial reactions to smoking.

A sample of 372 adolescents completed annual surveys regarding their initial reactions to smoking (IRTS) and their current smoking status. Each annual survey asked participants if they had the following five reactions the first time they smoked a cigarette: coughing, or feeling dizzy, sick, high, or relaxed. Time 1 IRTS data were collected within 1 year of the reported initial smoking experience, and Time 2 IRTS data were collected 1 year later. Kappa values for two IRTS items, coughing (.45) and dizziness (.40), indicated modest but acceptable reliability across a 1-year period, but the remaining items showed poor reliability (all < or =.31). Logistic regression analyses indicated that no IRTS item significantly predicted regular (at least weekly) smoking 1 year later. However, when IRTS and smoking status were assessed concurrently (at Time 2), reports of feeling relaxed and not coughing during the initial episode were significantly correlated with regular smoking. Participants who progressed from experimental to regular smoking from Time 1 to Time 2 were more likely to report relaxation as an initial reaction to smoking at Time 2 after denying relaxation at Time 1.

Rapid progression to regular cigarette smoking among nonsmoking adolescents: interactions with gender and ethnicity.

BACKGROUND: While the correlates and predictors associated with transition through the stages of smoking acquisition have received substantial attention, the identification of factors associated with the time course of progression remain generally unexplored. METHODS: We identified adolescents escalating from nonsmoking to regular smoking in 1 year as rapid progressors (n = 98) and those escalating from nonsmoking to experimental smoking in 1 year as slow progressors (n = 555). We entered demographic and psychosocial variables, initial reactions to smoking variables, and their interactions with gender and ethnicity into a logistic regression analysis comparing rapid progressors to slow progressors. RESULTS: At baseline, rapid progressors reported more friends who smoked regularly. Girls who reported more concern with dieting and less social success were more likely to progress to regular smoking within 1 year; these variables did not influence progression in boys. Those who associated positive feelings with their initial smoking experience were more likely to progress to regular smoking. Differences between white and African American youth emphasize the importance of physiological interpretations of initial smoking experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that even as nonsmokers, adolescents likely to progress quickly to regular smoking can be identified. Researchers designing prevention programs should take these factors into account.

A prospective evaluation of the relationships between smoking dosage and body mass index in an adolescent, biracial cohort.

Although there is clearly an inverse relationship between smoking and body weight, recent studies suggest that weight attenuation via smoking is slow and may take decades to accrue. This investigation prospectively evaluated the relationships between smoking dosage (or lack thereof) and relative weight change in 1697 adolescents followed over 4 years. A 4 (smoking groups: 0, 1, 2, or 3 or more years of smoking exposure)x2 (ethnicity: Caucasian or African American)x2 (gender: male or female) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to assess weight gain attenuation associated with increasing exposure to smoking. The overall results revealed a significant three-way interaction between smoking dosage, gender, and ethnicity. Specifically, smoking initiation was associated with an increase in body mass index (BMI) for 2 years after initiation. For those youth smoking 3 or more years, body weights were almost identical compared to never-smokers. No significant reductions in body weight were observed in any gender or ethnic group for up to 3 years after smoking initiation. It is concluded that smoking initiation is not associated with adolescent body weight change for at least a 3-year period.