Understanding factors that influence smoking uptake.

OBJECTIVE: To explore relationships between patterns of smoking uptake and social context and attitudinal variables. DESIGN: Cross sectional survey. SETTING: Public schools in Tucson, Arizona and Albuquerque, New Mexico. PARTICIPANTS: 982 children in grades 6-9 (ages 11-15 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Items measuring smoking history, nicotine dependence and quit attempts, susceptibility to smoking in the future, smoking norms, use of other tobacco products, attitudes toward smoking, and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Overall, 43% of children had smoked a cigarette and 57% had never used them. Ever smokers lived in social contexts with more smoking and where smoking was normative. Among never users, 25% are susceptible to smoking; these children have positive attitudes toward smoking, do not feel social pressure to stay off cigarettes, and had more friends who smoked. Among ever users, 36% were currently smoking in the past 30 days. Current users also lived in social context with more smoking and had positive attitudes toward smoking. Most users had tried to stop smoking. Only 9% of current users smoked daily; 29% had not smoked a whole cigarette. Greater cigarette consumption was associated with more favourable attitudes toward smoking. Most of past users were in early uptake: 95% had smoked less than 100 cigarettes but 49% were susceptible to smoking again. CONCLUSIONS: There is promise in differentiating subgroups among the never, past and current use of cigarettes. Susceptibility within each of these groups was associated with similar patterns of attitudes and social context. These patterns in smoking uptake need to be confirmed prospectively.

Formative research activities to provide Web-based nutrition education to adults in the Upper Rio Grande Valley.

The Internet is a promising new tool for disseminating cancer prevention information. Barriers to full implementation include disparities in access and skill and availability of information relevant at the local level. A nutrition education Web site to promote fruit and vegetable intake is being produced for a tri-ethnic adult population in Colorado and New Mexico. Development is guided by findings from formative research including focus groups with local residents, a survey on computer and Internet use with 200 adults in 1998, an assessment of public access computer sites, and in-depth discussion with local community computer skills trainers.

MADD victim impact panels and stages-of-change in drunk-driving prevention.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the additional effects of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Victim Impact Panels (VIPs) over the effects of a DWI (driving while intoxicated) school, on (1) moving individuals through the stages-of-change toward not drinking while driving and (2) drunk-driving recidivism. METHOD: A randomized experiment with 813 (75% male) DWI offenders in New Mexico measured progress through the stages-of-change at pretest, posttest, 1-year follow-up and 2-year follow-up. In addition, drunk-driving recidivism over 2 years was measured from state driving records. Individuals were randomly assigned to a DWI school or a DWI school plus a MADD VIP. RESULTS: No significant difference in movement through the stages-of-change, or in recidivism, occurred between respondents in the DWI-school-only treatment, and those in the DWI school plus VIP treatment. CONCLUSIONS: There was no additional effect of the MADD VIP, a relatively emotional intervention, over that of the DWI school, a relatively informational approach, on DWI behavior (whether measured by stages-of-change or by DWI rearrest data) over the 2-year period following the two interventions.

Relationship of early inhalant use to substance use in college students.

This study examined the relationship between early inhalant use and later substance use in a sample of college students. Data were taken from four campus-wide surveys that assessed changes in rates of substance use over time at a large Southwestern university. Within these surveys, a group of students (n = 187) who reported early use of inhalants (i.e., before age 18) was identified and examined in terms of their substance use behavior while in college (i.e., during the year and month prior to the survey). These students were compared to two other groups of students: those who reported early use of marijuana but no early use of inhalants (n = 1271) and students who reported no early use of either inhalants or marijuana (n = 1479). Results show that early use of either inhalants or marijuana substantially increased risk of frequent drinking, binge drinking, smoking, illicit drug use, and substance-related consequences during the college years. However, the early use of inhalants conferred the greatest risk and was associated with twice the rate of binge and frequent drinking and significantly greater rates of tobacco and drug use than early marijuana use alone. Implications of these findings for intervention and prevention with college students are discussed.

Drinking, binge drinking, and other drug use among southwestern undergraduates: three-year trends.

This study examined substance use patterns and consequences in college students over a three year period. Students were surveyed at a large, southwestern university, allowing for a diverse sample that included a large percentage of minority respondents. Students (total N = 2710) in 1994, 1995, and 1996 responded anonymously to the Core Survey of Alcohol and Drugs. Over 80% of students at each time point were current drinkers, and over one-third at each time period reported binge drinking. Binge drinking was associated with greater weekly drinking and with a range of negative consequences. Underage drinking was prevalent at all time points, and underage drinkers reported drinking in a range of on- and off-campus situations. Hispanic students reported higher rates of binge drinking than other ethnic groups. Nonwhite, non-Hispanic students reported greater rates of abstinence than other students. Although other drug use was much less prevalent, drug use in combination with drinking was associated with more problematic patterns of drinking and more negative consequences. Results are discussed in terms of implications for interventions with college students.

Changing perceptions of riskiness in drinking, drugs, and driving: an emergency department-based alcohol and substance abuse prevention program.

For the last three years, the University of New Mexico School of Medicine/Division of Emergency Medicine has sponsored an Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Program (ASAP). The program's objectives were to expose youth to the "real-life" social and medical consequences of alcohol and substance abuse through visits and interviews with patients and their families at the University of New Mexico Emergency Department and Trauma Center. A pretest, post-test, and eight-month follow-up evaluation design was used to assess the program's effects. Questionnaires were administered to randomly selected experimental and control groups of seventh grade students (n = 27). Repeated-measures analysis of variance detected a significant experimental/control condition x time crossover interaction effect for stated perception of riskiness, F (2, 31) = 3.20, P = .049. The data indicated that, over time, the experimental group perceived the riskiness of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol to be greater, while the control group perceived such behavior to be less risky.