Smoking Status Of Participants Research Articles

E-cigarette use among university students in Palestine: Prevalence, knowledge, and determinant factors.

Recent reports indicated accelerated rates of e-cigarette use, especially among youth in various Middle Eastern countries, including Palestine. Nevertheless, little is known about knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding this topic in Palestine. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of e-cigarette use among Palestinian university students, along with their knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about e-cigarette use. An observational cross-sectional study, utilizing an online self-administered questionnaire, was conducted on Palestinian students from five universities between 17/04/2023 and 04/11/2023. A total of 1002 Palestinian university students completed the questionnaire. The prevalence of e-cigarette use among students was 18.1%. The mean knowledge score about e-cigarettes was significantly lower among the users of e-cigarettes compared to non-users. E-cigarette use was significantly associated with the participants' smoking status. Among e-cigarette users, 43.6% were also current traditional cigarette users, and 66.9% were current waterpipe users. E-cigarette use was significantly associated with having a friend who is a smoker and/ or a smoking mother. Binary logistic regression revealed a significant positive effect between the participant's smoking status, the mother's smoking status, knowledge about e-cigarettes, and the use of e-cigarettes (p-value < 0.05). Among e-cigarette users, 18.8% used them in indoor places at the university, and 25% reported using them daily in the past month. Affordability of e-cigarettes was the most reported reason for their use (47.5%). This study concluded that e-cigarette use is prevalent and rapidly rising among university students in Palestine. This is worrisome as it is significantly associated with insufficient knowledge about the adverse health effects of E-cigarette use, and its addictive nature. These findings focus on the importance of improving the students' knowledge about e-cigarette use by implementing educational campaigns and considering age regulations on e-cigarette availability and use.

Evaluation of the prevalence of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among opium users, and cigarette smokers and comparison with normal population in Kharameh: a cross-sectional study.

Recent studies have suggested that opium use may increase mortality from pulmonary diseases. However, there are limited comprehensive studies regarding the prevalence of Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) among tobacco and opium users has been published. We aimed to determine the prevalence of respiratory disease among tobacco and opium users. This cross-sectional study of tobacco and opium users and matched controls was conducted in the Kharameh Cohort, Fars, Iran. The prevalence of COPD and asthma, along with the participants demographical and spirometry data were examined. The average age of participants was 57 ± 8 years. Never smokers had a significant higher BMI (26.6 vs. 24.8), FEV1 (91% vs. 82%) and FVC (96% vs. 88%) values compared to participants with a positive smoking status. There was a statistical difference in the prevalence of COPD, asthma, and asthma COPD overlap (ACO) based on the participants smoking status, with the highest prevalence among opium and cigarette smokers, followed by opium users alone. Based on multivariate analysis, higher age, lower BMI, lower education than under diploma, cigarette smoking and opium use were significantly correlated with higher COPD prevalence; while lower age, cigarette smoking and opium use were significantly correlated with higher asthma prevalence. Illiterate participants had a significantly higher prevalence of COPD (23.6%), asthma (22%), and ACO (7.9%) among the educational groups. Regarding the prevalence of asthma, the higher socio-economic group had the lowest prevalence. Opium and tobacco users had a significantly higher prevalence of respiratory diseases, along with lower lung function tests based on spirometry evaluation.

Cigarette smoking and risk of adult-onset Still disease: a propensity score matching analysis.

Environmental factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases. Smoking is thought to be a risk factor for autoimmune rheumatic diseases. The purpose of the present study was to assess the association between smoking and adult-onset Still disease (AOSD) and the effect of smoking on outcomes of this disease. In this case-control study, patients with AOSD who met the Yamaguchi criteria, were older than 16 years at the disease onset and were in follow-up for at least 12 months were consecutively enrolled in the study. The outcome of AOSD was assessed by acquiring remission on treatment, remission off treatment, time to remission and rate of flare. The smoking status of participants was defined by direct or phone interviews. Individuals who had smoked daily for at least 6 months were defined as a smoker. We performed propensity score matching analyses by using four parameters, including age, sex, educational status and marital status. Propensity score matching resulted in 72 patients with AOSD and 216 matched controls. The number of ever smokers in the AOSD and control groups were 11 (15.3%) and 25 (11.6%) respectively. There was no significant increase in the risk of AOSD in multivariate analysis after adjustment for age, sex, marital status and educational level. There were no significant differences in the outcomes of AOSD between ever and never smokers. Smoking probably is not a risk factor for AOSD and did not affect the response to treatment.

Validity assessment of self-reported smoking status to detection of urine cotinine levels among patients with tuberculosis undergoing tobacco cessation treatment

Introduction and Aim: Tobacco cessation programs by and large use self-reporting as the gold standard for assessing tobacco use. However, self-reporting may be skewed due to the socio-demographic profile and the context in which the respondents share their tobacco history after undergoing tobacco cessation treatment. It is therefore, imperative to validate the respondents’ self-reported smoking status in an effective manner. Hence, this study aimed in validating the self-reported smoking status of study participants with their urine cotinine levels in a randomized controlled trial on smoking cessation. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka to validate the self-reported smoking status of 300 participants. A seven-day point prevalence of smoking status was assessed based on a questionnaire and validated further using the semi-quantitative urine cotinine test at the end of a randomized smoking cessation study. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of self-reported smoking status was 73.17% and 95.79% respectively. Other validity indicators like positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and accuracy were estimated to be 97.40%, 62.33%, 17.38%, 0.28%, and 80.33% respectively. Cohen’s kappa statistics showed a substantial agreement (k=0.61; SE= 0.04) between the two test methods. Educational status and the level of motivation to quit showed a significant association between the test methods. Conclusion: Self-reported smoking status of participants is not sensitive in identifying smokers thus leading to under-reporting.

Sex differences in the association between smoking status and increased incidence of Alzheimer’s dementia

AbstractBackgroundGrowing evidence indicates that smoking, a late life risk factor for Alzheimer’s dementia (AD), is significantly associated with increased prevalence of AD. However, the relationship between sex, smoking, and incident AD has not been well explored. The current study examined the relationship between sex, smoking status, and time to clinical diagnosis of AD.Method387 participants from UK Biobank were included in the study (mean±SE age=67.7±1.5 years, 50.9% female). Participants were over the age of 65 at their baseline visit and subsequently developed AD. Participant smoking status was determined from a baseline lifestyle questionnaire (8.5% current smoker, 45.7% previous smoker). Cox proportional‐hazard models were used to test the association between smoking and conversion. An interaction term and stratification by sex were used to assess the moderating role of sex in the association. Baseline age, APOE‐e4 status, sex, and Townsend deprivation index were included in the analyses.ResultMedian time to conversion was 6.39 years (interquartile range (IQR): 2.75) among never‐smoker participants, 6.36 years (IQR: 2.5) among previous smokers, while current smokers had a median time to conversion of 5.56 years (IQR: 2.59). Never‐smoker men had a shorter median time to conversion than never‐smoker women (6.20 (2.55) vs 6.57 (2.96) years). Current smoker men had a shorter median time to conversion than current smoker women (5.41 (2.69) vs 5.81 (1.87)). Previous smoker men, however, had a longer median time to conversion than previous smoker women (6.47 (2.46) vs 6.0 (2.58)). The hazard ratio (HR) for the current smokers relative to never‐smokers was 1.52 (confidence interval (CI): (1.03, 2.24), p=0.04), indicating that smoking increases the risk of conversion to AD by 52%. Smoking status and sex interaction (HR=0.65, CI: (0.42,0.99), p=0.05) revealed a significant difference between previous smoker men (HR=0.73, CI: (0.53,1), p=0.06) and previous smoker women (HR=1.11, CI: (0.83,1.5), p=0.48). Cessation of smoking had an opposing effect on the relative risk between men (reduced by 27%) and women (increased by 11%).ConclusionCurrent smoking status is associated with increased incidence of AD and differs by sex. Further analyses are needed to understand the causal mechanisms by sex underlying these associations.

Socio-demographic determinants of smoking: A data mining analysis of the Global Adult Tobacco Surveys

Objective: This paper presented a) how the Global Adult Tobacco Surveys (GATSs) data can be used for extracting valuable information about tobacco use behaviors of people and b) the prediction performance of the implemented classification algorithms on the GATS data. Methods: Three well-known classification methods: K-nearest neighbor, C4.5 algorithm, and multilayer perceptron were applied to assess the classifying performance for the smoking status of GATS participants (pre-defined classes: smoker and no smoker) based on the socio-demographic characteristics (age group, gender, residence, education level, and working status). The first analysis was performed on the GATS data from Turkey. Subsequently, the model producing the best performance for Turkey was also implemented for other six European countries: Greece, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. Results: All of the tree algorithms were more confident to classify no smokers. The correct classification rate of C4.5 algorithm was the highest among the algorithms for the GATS Turkey data. In addition, the C4.5 algorithm classified the males more detailed than the females. The comparative analysis indicated that the C4.5 algorithm correctly classified the smoking status of participants of Ukraine over 80% while it was lower than 70% for Greece. Thus, the effects of demographic factors on smoking status can change from one country to another. Conclusion: This paper indicated that the data supplied by GATS such as demographic data may help to compute the likelihood of an individual to be a smoker in the future.

LBA02-01 PERSISTENT DEFICIENCIES IN THE MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING OF TOBACCO USE IN CONTEMPORARY GENITOURINARY ONCOLOGY CLINICAL TRIALS

You have accessJournal of UrologyLate-breaking Abstract II - Malignant1 Sep 2021LBA02-01 PERSISTENT DEFICIENCIES IN THE MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING OF TOBACCO USE IN CONTEMPORARY GENITOURINARY ONCOLOGY CLINICAL TRIALS Richard Matulewicz, Calvin Zhao, Akya Myrie, Zach Feuer, Timothy Roberts, and Marc Bjurlin Richard MatulewiczRichard Matulewicz More articles by this author , Calvin ZhaoCalvin Zhao More articles by this author , Akya MyrieAkya Myrie More articles by this author , Zach FeuerZach Feuer More articles by this author , Timothy RobertsTimothy Roberts More articles by this author , and Marc BjurlinMarc Bjurlin More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000002149.01AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookLinked InTwitterEmail Abstract INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Smoking is a causal or contributory factor for nearly all genitourinary cancers and exerts significant influence on treatment, quality of life, and survival outcomes. In order to understand the influence smoking has on the outcomes of contemporary therapies, pertinent smoking-related data must be systematically collected and report. We sought to determine how often and how rigorously smoking status is collected and reported in publications of clinical trials in genitourinary cancers. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review according to PRISMA guidelines of high impact urology, general medicine, and oncology journals to identify manuscripts that reported the results of phase II-IV randomized clinical trials in prostate, urothelial, or kidney cancer. Manuscripts were screened in three phases by two independent reviewers; any conflict was resolved by a third reviewer with content expertise. Studies were included if they were published between May 2010-May 2020, reported results of a Phase II-IV randomized trial with a therapeutic intervention, and reported planned analysis of primary data. Pilot or Phase I studies, reports of unplanned secondary analyses, and studies with diagnostic/screening interventions were excluded. Our primary outcome of interest was whether a study collected and reported data on participant smoking status. Secondary outcomes included details about how smoking status was reported, whether the trial arms were balanced with respect to smoking status, and if smoking status was included in analysis. RESULTS: Our initial search yielded 622 articles, 354 of which met criteria. Outcomes of trials in prostate cancer (59.3%) and those studying systemic therapies (46.9%) were most common. Most were Phase III studies (69.8%) and included patients with either localized (33.9%) or metastatic (33.9%) disease. The vast majority of included studies (91.8%) did not report any details about trial participants’ smoking status. When included, 96.3% of studies reported baseline status qualitatively. No studies used a validated measurement instrument or reported change in participants’ smoking status over the study period. When included in final analysis, smoking had a significant association with the primary outcome in two of three studies. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical trial participants’ smoking status is rarely collected and reported in publications of genitourinary cancer trials. Absence of these data precludes further study of how smoking impacts outcomes and highlights an important deficiency in GU oncology clinical trial design. Source of Funding: None © 2021 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 206Issue Supplement 3September 2021Page: e1175-e1175 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2021 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Richard Matulewicz More articles by this author Calvin Zhao More articles by this author Akya Myrie More articles by this author Zach Feuer More articles by this author Timothy Roberts More articles by this author Marc Bjurlin More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Loading ...

Increased HSP70 and TLR2 Gene Expression and Association of HSP70 rs6457452 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism with the Risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in the Croatian Population.

Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) engages Toll-like receptors (TLR) 2 and 4 when found in the extracellular compartment and contributes to inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Since there is growing evidence for the genetic risk factors for COPD, the gene expression of HSP70, TLR2 and TLR4 was determined, as well as the association between HSP70, TLR2 and TLR4 single nucleotide polymorphisms, (SNPs) and COPD. The gene expression was assessed in peripheral blood cells of 137 COPD patients and 95 controls by a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), while a total of nine SNPs were genotyped by TaqMan allelic discrimination real-time PCR. HSP70 and TLR2 gene expression was increased in COPD patients compared to the controls, regardless of the disease severity and smoking status of participants. The rs6457452 SNP of HSP70 was associated with COPD, indicating the protective role of the T allele (OR = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.24–0.89, p = 0.022). Furthermore, COPD C/T heterozygotes showed a decreased HSP70 mRNA level compared to COPD C/C homozygotes. In conclusion, HSP70 and TLR2 may have a role in the pathogenesis of COPD, and the HSP70 rs6457452 variant might influence the genetic susceptibility to COPD in the Croatian population.

Polymorphisms of Antigen-Presenting Machinery Genes in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Different Impact on Disease Risk and Clinical Parameters in Smokers and Never-Smokers.

Lung cancer is strongly associated with cigarette smoking; nevertheless some never-smokers develop cancer. Immune eradication of cancer cells is dependent on polymorphisms of HLA class I molecules and antigen-processing machinery (APM) components. We have already published highly significant associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the ERAP1 gene with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Chinese, but not in Polish populations. However, the smoking status of participants was not known in the previous study. Here, we compared the distribution of APM polymorphic variants in larger cohorts of Polish patients with NSCLC and controls, stratified according to their smoking status. We found significant but opposite associations in never-smokers and in smokers of all tested SNPs (rs26653, rs2287987, rs30187, and rs27044) but one (rs26618) in ERAP1. No significant associations were seen in other genes. Haplotype analysis indicated that the distribution of many ERAP1/2 haplotypes is opposite, depending on smoking status. Additionally, haplotypic combination of low activity ERAP1 and the lack of an active form of ERAP2 seems to favor the disease in never-smokers. We also revealed interesting associations of some APM polymorphisms with: age at diagnosis (ERAP1 rs26653), disease stage (ERAP1 rs27044, PSMB9 rs17587), overall survival (ERAP1 rs30187), and response to chemotherapy (ERAP1 rs27044). The results presented here may suggest the important role for ERAP1 in the anti-cancer response, which is different in smokers versus never-smokers, depending to some extent on the presence of ERAP2, and affecting NSCLC clinical course.

Impact of gender, age and smoking habits on the effectiveness of health warning messages on cigarette packets: research on a highly educated Turkish sample

ABSTRACT This study investigated the perceived effectiveness of health warning labels (HWs) on smokers and non-smokers. Data were collected online and 342 valid responses were obtained. The impact of HWs in smoking abstinence was analyzed with canonical correlation technique and the results illustrated that the perceived effectiveness of HWs changed with gender, age and smoking levels. HWs depicting unhealthy infants due to second-hand smoking were found to be more effective for female participants. In contrast, depicting male figures who had had heart surgery, a sexual impotence problem and difficulty in breathing during a treadmill stress test were found more effective for males. Although the impact was not very strong, HW that read “smoking causes lethal lung cancer’ was considered effective mostly by the older participants. Finally, smoking frequency was not a significant predictor of the perceived effectiveness of all HWs, except for the two warnings which illustrated the adverse effect of second-hand smoking on infants. These two warnings were considered ineffective against the increase in smoking frequency. From a health promotion viewpoint, these findings highlight the importance of including social determinants in the process of HWs design since the effectiveness of HWs changed based on age, gender and the smoking status of participants. Thus, this study recommends that health policymakers tailor HWs based on gender, age, and smoking status rather than mass communicating the same message across different social groups.

Water-pipe smoking and serum testosterone levels in adult males in Qatar.

INTRODUCTIONWater-pipe (WP) smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption in the Middle-East and is rapidly spreading on a global scale. Although, water-pipe smoking is linked to various diseases, such as emphysema and various types of cancers, its effect on testosterone levels has yet to be investigated. This study explores the effect of water-pipe smoking on serum testosterone levels in males in Qatar.METHODSIn this cross-sectional sample within a cohort study, we retrieved data for a total of 1000 male volunteers from the Qatar BioBank (QBB) project. A self-reported questionnaire was used to determine the water-pipe smoking status of participants. Moreover, participants were stratified based on the frequency of smoking. Total testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were measured clinically, whereas free testosterone and bioavailable testosterone were calculated using Vermeulen’s equation. Hormone values of 541 males (277 water-pipe smokers and 264 non-smokers) were compared using multiple regression analysis based on water-pipe smoking status after adjusting for confounding factors.RESULTSNo statistically significant difference was observed between WP smokers and non-water-pipe smokers in the likelihood of having lower or higher total testosterone, after adjustment for confounding factors. Similar results were found in free testosterone, bioavailable testosterone, and sex hormone binding globulin (all p>0.05). When compared with the reference group, both light and heavy water-pipe smokers had a similar likelihood of circulating low total testosterone levels (OR=0.83, 95% CI: 0.46–1.49; and OR=0.80, 95% CI: 0.43–1.49; respectively).CONCLUSIONSOur results reveal, for the first time, that there is no significant change in total testosterone, free testosterone, bioavailable testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin in waterpipe smokers compared to non-water-pipe smokers. Therefore, we believe that further studies are needed to confirm the effect of water-pipe smoking on testosterone in different populations.

Increased Serum CA125 and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) Levels on Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Predictor for Acute Heart Failure.

BackgroundThis study was conducted to see whether increased values of serum CA125 and BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) act as predictor for acute heart failure (AHF).Material/MethodsSeventy-eight patients with clinically diagnosed cardiac function II–IV; and AHF were considered as the study group of this retrospective study and patients who had cardiac function I (without AHF) were considered the control group (n=82). The values of CA125 and BDNF were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for developing the correlation with the Killip classification, and the diagnostic value of AHF.ResultsStatistically insignificant difference was noticed between baseline information e.g., blood pressure or smoking status of participants in study group and control group (P>0.05). The higher values of CA125 (5.68±1.8 U/mL or BDNF (19.48±5.3 pg/mL) in the study group had advantage over the control after independent sample t-test (P<0.001). A positive correlation was observed between values of the test substances and Killip classifications (I–IV) of cardiac functioning was observed (r=0.745, P<0.001; Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient). The sensitivity and specificity of area under the curve (AUC) combined with serum CA125 and BDNF levels in the diagnosis of AHF was 91.02% and 81.63%, respectively.ConclusionsIncreased serum level of the test substances indicates severity of AHF-leading AMI. Thus, monitoring is needed to avoid risk of AHF.

Evaluate College Students’ Knowledge, Towards Smoking Effect on Diabetes Consequences

Smoking is a modifiable risk factor for many other diseases, this study aimed to evaluate student’s awareness in relation to smoking consequences on diabetes. This is a cross-sectional study involved students who attended al-Safwa university college in Karbala, Iraq. Data were collected within one month (February 2018). The collected data were analysed using the SPSS (version 18.0) software package (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Pearson chi-square test were used to find the association between participants smoking status and their knowledge to its consequences on their health. Seventy-five participants enrolled in the study, their mean age was (22±2.2 years); and their BMI was (24±3.8 kg/m2). Around 50% of them were smokers; they smoked around 12±16.5 cigarette/day. more than two thirds of the participants were males (69.3%). Participants were either students in the pharmacy department or dentistry department of the college. More than two thirds of them didn’t know whether smoking had bad impact on diabetic people or no. However, almost an equal proportion of them believe that smoking can worsen heart disease (range 69%-78% of participants). On the other hand, Pearson chi-square shows a non-significant association (p>0.05) between participant smoking status and their knowledge to its consequences on their health. Knowledge regarding smoking bad effect can increase quitting rates; nerveless if it was combined with counseling it would have double effect. This was one of few studies that investigate college student’s knowledge in Iraq, it lightens the way for future researches to be done.

Frequency of Use and Smoking Status of U.S. Adolescent E-Cigarette Users in 2015

E-cigarette use by adolescents is an important issue for public health. This study analyzed the frequency of e-cigarette use and its association with smoking status among U.S. adolescents. The National Youth Tobacco Survey 2015 was analyzed in 2017, focusing on frequency of past 30-day e-cigarette use according to smoking status of participants. Smoking status was classified as never smoker, ever/not a past 30-day smoker, and past 30-day smoker. Infrequent and frequent smoking and e-cigarette use was defined as use for <20 and ≥20 of the past 30 days, respectively. Past 30-day e-cigarette use was reported by 54.5% (95% CI=47.8%, 61.0%) of past 30-day smokers, 26.5% (95% CI=23.2%, 30.1%) of ever/not past 30-day smokers, and 4.6% (95% CI=4.0%, 5.2%) of never smokers (p<0.001). No past 30-day e-cigarette use was reported by 94.5% and frequent e-cigarette use by 0.3% of never smokers. Past 30-day e-cigarette use was reported by 50.4% (95% CI=43.6%, 57.3%) of infrequent and 64.7% (95% CI=54.4%, 73.8%) of frequent past 30-day smokers (p<0.001). E-cigarette use frequency correlated with both smoking status and tobacco cigarette consumption (ρ=0.42, p<0.001 and ρ=0.40, p<0.001, respectively). Past 30-day smokers were more likely to report past 30-day e-cigarette use (OR=11.42, 95% CI=9.06, 14.40) compared with adolescents reporting no past 30-day smoking. E-cigarette use is more prevalent among ever and past 30-day smoking adolescents compared with never smoking adolescents. Frequent e-cigarette use is rare among never smoking adolescents.

A study to assess the pulmonary functions in a cement ware house workers near railway station, Nishatpura, Bhopal

Background: It is unfortunate enough that cement industry workers despite of so many awareness campaigns, unable to seek protection against dust of cement and thus bound to face respiratory problems. In developing countries no legitimate bindings regarding protection of such workers though cement industry is one of the largest industries. Methods: Non probability sampling done in which cases taken from cement workers and control taken from nearby residents matched for age gender and smoking status of participants. Results: When studied for the restrictive and obstructive respiratory problems it was found 2.82 times and 4.71 times higher in cases respectively. When cases studied for duration of working against disease developed, it was found that 61.81% developed obstructive pulmonary disorder and proportion increased from 23.63% to 30.80 as the work span increased from 0-5 years to 5-15 years respectively. When it has been observed for restrictive pulmonary disorder, it has been increased from 3.6% to 5.4%. Conclusions: It has been observed that workers have either obstructive pulmonary dysfunction or normal pulmonary functions and on increasing the duration, number of workers with restrictive pulmonary function increases proportionately.

Khat Chewing Habits in the Population of the Jazan Region, Saudi Arabia: Prevalence and Associated Factors.

The use of khat (Catha edulis) is a major public health and social problem that is believed to be growing globally. The khat chewing habit is prevalent in all areas of the Jazan region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). However, few studies have been conducted at the community level to investigate the khat chewing habits in this area. This study was conducted with the aim of assessing the prevalence and predictors of khat chewing among the Jazan community population. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample (n = 4,500) of the Jizani population who attended primary heath care centers in Jazan region. The participants were selected using a two-stage cluster random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The overall lifetime prevalence of khat chewing was 33.2% (95% CI 31.8–34.7) and was significantly higher for males 42.2% (95% CI 40.4–43.9) than for females 11.3% (95% CI 9.6–13.1) (P < 0.001). Current khat chewers accounted for 28.7% (95% CI 27.4–30.1) of the population sampled; 36.9% (95% CI 35.2–38.6) of whom were males, which is a significantly higher percentage than the 8.7% (95% CI 7.3–10.4) of current khat chewers who were females (P < 0.001). The multivariate logistic regression analysis suggests that the most important independent predictors of khat chewing were having a friend who chewed khat (OR = 20.1, P < 0.001), participant's smoking status (OR) = 3.9, P < 0.001), friend's smoking status (OR = 2.2, P < 0.001), gender (OR = 2.2, P < 0.001) and educational level (OR = 1.5, P < 0.05). A large proportion of the Jizani populations chew khat. Government and non-governmental organizations NGOs should design and strengthen community prevention programs to curb the high prevalence of khat use.

Perception of smoke-free policies among workers in an Italian Local Health Agency: survey of opinions, knowledge and behaviours.

This study evaluated the opinions and knowledge of the Health-Care-Workers and other employees about smoking in the workplace and investigated their perceptions about the implementation and strengthening of smoke-free policies and their views of proposed smoking cessation course. This cross-sectional study analyzed data resulting from a questionnaire administered in the Local Health Agency of Rieti (Italy). Comparisons have been made according to smoking status of participants: Ever Smokers (ES) or Never Smokers (NS). The study was conducted on a sample of 300 workers, the majority of whom think that the smoking ban is not observed in the workplace due to lack of respect for colleagues (59.2% of NS vs 40% of ES, p=0.022). Exposure to Secondhand smoke (SHS) is reported by 15.2% of ES and 30.3% of NS (p=0.006). About 50% of the participants think that the smoking ban has led to an improvement in the quality of interpersonal relationships. Strengthening the smoking ban through frequent inspections would be very effective according to 78% of ES and 88% of NS (p=0.043); having smoking cessation courses within the agency would be considered useful by 56% of ES and 68% of NS (p= 0.064). Relatively few respondents knew of the association between smoking and bladder cancer (35.2% of ES and 47.2% of NS, p=0.061), and asthma exacerbation (66% of ES and 77% of NS, p=0.040). Logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, work categories and smoking status show that ES report that they are less likely to be exposed to SHS (OR= 0.42, 95% CI 0.22-0.78, p=0.006) and to think that people smoke because of lack of respect (OR= 0.46, 95% CI 0.24-0.87, p=0.018). More frequent inspections (OR= 0.50, 95% CI 0.26-0.95, p=0.037) and smoking cessation courses (OR= 0.61, 95% CI 0.37-1.00, p=0.053) are considered less effective by ES. ES are less likely to know that smoking is a cause of bladder cancer (OR= 0.54, 95% CI 0.32-0.90, p=0.019) and asthma exacerbation (OR= 0.53, 95% CI 0.31-0.92, p=0.023). Fifty-seven percent of current smokers would like to quit, but only 41% would join a cessation course in the agency. The results obtained may be used to analyze the effectiveness of tobacco control policy and programs aimed at freeing companies from smoke. Policy makers should provide the best possible protection for workers against exposure to SHS, in particular with enforcement of the smoking ban and smoking cessation courses tailored to maximize potential benefits for both workers and employers.

Abstract P144: Smoking, Menthol Cigarettes and Peripheral Arterial Disease in the 1999– 2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

Introduction: Cigarette flavorings, with the exception of menthol, have been banned under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Previous studies have found strong associations between active smoking and peripheral arterial disease. While there is substantial interest in evaluating the health effects of menthol as compared to regular cigarette use, no information is available on the influence of cigarette type (non-menthol or menthol) on the risk of peripheral arterial disease. Objective: To investigate the association of cigarette smoking, menthol cigarette use and the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease in US adults Methods: We studied 5,978 adults 40 years of age and older who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999–2004. Information on participant smoking status and cigarette type were derived from self-reported questionnaire data. Peripheral arterial disease was defined as an ankle-brachial blood pressure index &lt;0.9 in at least one leg. Results: The weighted prevalence of peripheral arterial disease in the study population was 4.9%. Fifty percent of participants were never smokers compared to 31%, 14% and 5% of former, current non-menthol and current menthol cigarette smokers, respectively. After adjustment for demographics and cardiovascular risk factors, the odds ratio for peripheral arterial disease was 1.98 (95% CI: 1.41, 2.80), 5.24 (95% CI: 3.41, 8.05), 3.37 (95% CI: 1.86, 6.10) comparing former, current regular cigarette smokers and current menthol cigarette smokers to never smokers. After further adjustment for pack-years and serum cotinine, the odds ratio for peripheral arterial disease was 1.44 (95% CI: 0.97, 2.15), 3.65 (95% CI: 1.57, 8.50) and 2.51 (95% CI: 1.09, 5.80) comparing former, current regular cigarette smokers and current menthol cigarette smokers to never smokers. The significant association between smoking and peripheral arterial disease was similar for smokers of non-menthol and menthol cigarettes (p-value for heterogeneity= 0.53). Conclusions: In a representative sample of the US population, current menthol cigarette use was associated with increased prevalence of peripheral arterial disease with no difference compared to smoking non-menthol cigarettes.

Development of a smoking abstinence self-efficacy questionnaire.

Background Self-efficacy beliefs are an important determinant of (changes in) health behaviors. In the area of smoking cessation, there is a need for a short, feasible, and validated questionnaire measuring self-efficacy beliefs regarding smoking cessation.PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of a six-item questionnaire to assess smoking cessation self-efficacy.MethodsWe used longitudinal data from a smoking cessation study. A total of 513 smokers completed the Smoking Abstinence Self-efficacy Questionnaire (SASEQ) and questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms and motivation to quit smoking. After that, they set a quit date and attempted to stop smoking. One year after the quit date, smoking status of participants was assessed by self report. The psychometric properties of the SASEQ were studied and we investigated whether SASEQ scores predicted successful smoking cessation.ResultsFactor analysis yielded one factor, with an Eigenvalue of 3.83, explaining 64% of variance. All factor loadings were ≥0.73. We found a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 for the SASEQ, low correlations for the SASEQ with depressive symptoms, and motivation to quit, indicating that self-efficacy is measured independently of these concepts. Furthermore, high baseline SASEQ scores significantly predicted smoking abstinence at 52 weeks after the quit date (OR = 1.85; 95% CI = 1.20~2.84).ConclusionsThe SASEQ appeared to be a short, reliable, and valid questionnaire to assess self-efficacy beliefs regarding smoking abstinence. In the present study, this instrument also had good predictive validity. The short SASEQ can easily be used in busy clinical practice to guide smoking cessation interventions.

Economic costs attributable to smoking in China: update and an 8-year comparison, 2000–2008

ObjectiveTo estimate the health-related economic costs attributable to smoking in China for persons aged 35 and older in 2003 and in 2008 and to compare these costs with the respective...