Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco
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Some researchers are promoting the use of smokeless tobacco as safer than cigarette smoking and as a possible method for quitting smoking, but smokeless tobacco might be a gateway drug that leads to smoking, and the availability and marketing of smokeless tobacco may keep smokers from quitting. This study assessed 4-year initiation rates of smokeless tobacco use and cigarette smoking in relation to each other and examined switching between the products. Data were from the 1989 Teenage Attitudes and Practices Survey and its 1993 follow-up study, comprising a nationally representative U. ⋯ More than 80% of baseline current smokers were still smokers 4 years later, and more than 40% of baseline current regular smokeless tobacco users became smokers either in addition to or in place of smokeless tobacco use. It appears that smokeless tobacco may be a starter product for subsequent smoking among young U. S. males but may have little effect on quitting smoking.
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We examined the prevalence and level of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure using urine cotinine levels in children and three types of maternal self-reports in a sample of 196 low socioeconomic status (SES) mothers and their children. The self-reports were report of the mother's own smoking, report of the number of household smokers, and report of the usual number of daily hours that the child was exposed to ETS. According to the reports, 59% of the children's mothers were current smokers, 71% of the children came from households with smokers, and 85% had daily exposure to ETS. ⋯ These data showed that ETS exposure was prevalent in low-SES children and that the maternal reports identified a higher number of children as ETS exposed. The biological measures provided data on levels of recent exposure; however, level of exposure from biological measures correlated only moderately with the maternal report. A combination of a maternal report and a biological measure is suggested as the most informative estimate of ETS exposure in young children.
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Comparative Study
Discussion of NRT and other antismoking interventions in UK general practitioners' routine consultations.
Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is an effective smoking cessation treatment, but little information is available about how primary care physicians use the therapy. We investigated the quality of UK general practitioners' (GPs') advice against smoking, including how frequently they recommend NRT to smokers. We compared the characteristics of smokers whom GPs recommended use NRT with smokers who did not receive GP recommendations. ⋯ Intending to give up smoking in the next 4 weeks was the only variable independently associated with smokers' recall of discussing NRT (OR=2.58 [95% CI 1.20% to 5.57%]). The study findings thus provide only limited information to support the notion that UK GPs recommend NRT in an evidence-based manner. Now that NRT is available by prescription from UK GPs, further research is needed to monitor whether this effective antismoking therapy is being prescribed appropriately.
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This study investigated whether taking medications for transdermal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) influenced smoking-cessation variables in postmenopausal women undergoing short-term abstinence from cigarettes. Women were recruited into two groups according to their pre-enrollment medication status--those currently on HRT (n = 17) or those not on HRT (n = 13). The HRT group had their previous medication replaced with a standard 0.1 mg estradiol transdermal system and 2.5 mg of Cycrin daily. ⋯ Contrary to our hypothesis, the exogenous hormone use did not have a differential effect on most of the dependent variables during the first 2 weeks of smoking abstinence. One exception was depressive symptomatology: the BDI change scores (week 2 - baseline) differed significantly for the HRT and non-HRT groups (p = .045), with women in the HRT group experiencing an increase in depressive symptomatology. This finding, though preliminary, may have clinical implications for postmenopausal women who attempt to quit smoking while on HRT, particularly since depressed mood following abstinence is associated with a relapse to smoking.