Association between textual and pictorial warnings on tumbac (waterpipe tobacco) boxes and motivation to quit waterpipe smoking among Lebanese and Iraqi adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Waterpipe tobacco smoking has increased tremendously at a global level among all age groups, particularly young people. Previous studies have examined the impact of waterpipe tobacco pictorial health warnings on adults but scarce studies were done on adolescents. The aim of this study was to assess the association of textual versus pictorial warnings on tumbac boxes and the motivation to quit waterpipe smoking among adolescents located in two Eastern Mediterranean countries Lebanon and Iraq. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted between May and November 2022, involving 294 adolescents waterpipe smokers from Lebanon and Iraq. The questionnaire included the Lebanese Waterpipe Dependence Smoking-11, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, the Waterpipe Harm Perception Scale, Waterpipe Knowledge Scale, Waterpipe Attitude Scale, the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence, and the Motivation to Stop Scale. RESULTS: When adjusting the results over confounding variables, the results showed that compared to finding the warnings to stop smoking not efficacious at all, adolescents who find the warnings moderately (aOR = 2.83) and very (aOR = 6.64) efficacious had higher motivation to quit. Compared to finding the warnings not increasing their curiosity for information about how to stop waterpipe smoking at all, participants who confessed that warnings increased their curiosity a little (aOR = 2.59), moderately (aOR = 3.34) and very (aOR = 3.58) had higher motivation to quit. Compared to not considering changing the tumbac brand if the company uses pictorial warnings, adolescents who would consider changing the tumbac brand (aOR = 2.15) had higher motivation to quit. CONCLUSION: Pictorial and textual warnings on waterpipe packs were associated with higher motivation to stop waterpipe smoking. Public health education programs for this purpose seem warranted.

Detection of abemaciclib, an anti-breast cancer agent, using a new electrochemical DNA biosensor.

Detection of DNA molecules and possible chemotherapy-induced changes in its structure has been the goal of researchers using rapid, sensitive and inexpensive approaches. Therefore, the aim of this study was to fabricate a new electrochemical DNA biosensor using pencil graphite electrodes modified with polypyrrole/Ce doped hexagonal nickel oxide nanodisks or PP/Ce-doped H-NiO-ND composites for determination of Abemaciclib (AMC) and ds-DNA molecules. The DNA biosensor was prepared by immobilizing ds-DNA on the surface of PP/Ce-doped H-NiO-ND/PGE. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was used to electrochemically detect AMC. The results elucidate the extremely high sensitivity of the ds-DNA/PP/Ce-doped H-NiO-ND/PGE biosensor to AMC, with a narrow detection limit of 2.7 nM and a lengthy linear range of 0.01-600.0 µM. The admirable performance of as-fabricated biosensor could be related to the active reaction sites and the unique electrochemical response related to the nanocomposites by enhancing ds-DNA stabilization and accelerating electron transfer on the surface of electrode.