Anxiety sensitivity and smoking among Spanish-speaking Latinx smokers.

Despite the documented health disparities for smoking among the Latinx population, there is limited understanding of transdiagnostic constructs that may help explain smoking among Spanish-speaking Latinx smokers. The present study examined one promising transdiagnostic factor, anxiety sensitivity (fear of anxiety and related sensations), in relation to cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for quitting, and severity of problems experienced when trying to quit among a large sample of Latinx smokers. Participants were 367 Spanish-speaking Latinx daily smokers (59.1% female, Mage = 33.20 years, SD = 11.81). As hypothesized, anxiety sensitivity was significantly related to the severity of cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for quitting, and problems when trying to quit. Inspection of the lower-order dimensions of anxiety sensitivity indicated that Physical Concerns was significantly related to cigarette dependence whereas Cognitive Concerns was associated with greater perceived barriers for quitting and severity of problems experienced during past quit attempts. The present study provides novel empirical evidence that anxiety sensitivity is related to a moderate, yet clinically meaningful, proportion of the variance in cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for quitting, and problems experienced during quit attempts. These findings underscore the value of examining anxiety sensitivity among Latinx smokers and focusing greater attention on this construct in efforts to reduce or quit smoking among this population.

Anxiety sensitivity and smoking outcome expectancies among Spanish-speaking Latinx adult smokers.

Smoking is among the most important health behaviors linked to premature death and disability among the Latinx population. Yet there is limited understanding of whether transdiagnostic factors like anxiety sensitivity may help explain smoking expectancies among Spanish-speaking Latinx smokers. The present investigation evaluated anxiety sensitivity in regard to smoking outcome expectancy factors among a large sample of adult Latinx smokers. Participants were 363 Spanish-speaking Latinx daily smokers (58.7% female, Mage = 33.3 years, SD = 9.8). As expected, anxiety sensitivity was significantly related to expectancies of negative reinforcement and negative personal consequences. Anxiety sensitivity also was a significant predictor of smoking expectancies of appetite control and positive reinforcement. The present study provides novel empirical evidence that anxiety sensitivity explains a notable degree of variance in smoking outcome expectancies over the variance accounted for by a range of theoretically relevant covariates among Latinx smokers. These results highlight the clinical utility in assessing anxiety sensitivity among Latinx smokers and focusing greater attention on this construct in efforts to better understand cognitive-based smoking expectancies among this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Are Portable Personnel Portal Monitors too sensitive?

The Human Monitoring Laboratory has field tested its Portable Personnel Portal (P3) Monitors using sources up to 1700 MBq (47 mCi) to determine the alarm distance as a function of activity. The results show that the P3 monitors are highly sensitive, so much so that siting will be a problem for multiple units if multiple alarms are to be avoided. Building materials will shield the monitors allowing units to be placed closer together than in the open where there is no shielding, but windows and doors reduce shielding and complicate the siting of multiple units. In either situation, careful prior thought should be given to siting the monitors and the logistics of the crowd control techniques.

Sensitivity of portable personnel portal monitors: potential problems when dealing with contaminated persons.

Health physicists are usually concerned with small amounts of radioactivity and strive to develop techniques to measure them; however, following a terrorist attack involving radioactive materials the converse might be the case, and exposed persons may be heavily contaminated. The Human Monitoring Laboratory (HML) has field tested its Portable Personnel Portal (P3) monitors using sources up to 1,700 MBq (47 mCi) to determine the alarm distance as a function of activity. The results show that the P3 monitors are highly sensitive, so much so that siting will be a problem for multiple units if multiple alarms are to be avoided. Building materials will shield the monitors allowing units to be placed closer together than in the open where there is no shielding, but windows and doors reduce shielding and complicate the siting of multiple units. In either situation, careful prior thought should be given to siting the monitors and the logistics of crowd control techniques.