Differences in Treating Tobacco Use Across National, State, and Public Hospital System Surveys.

The Louisiana Tobacco Control Initiative (TCI), a multidisciplinary program specializing in helping tobacco users quit, assisted health care providers in Louisiana's public hospitals with integrating evidence-based treatment of tobacco use into clinical practice. Our study compared smoking behavior, provider adherence to the 5 A's tobacco cessation intervention (ask, advise, assess, assist, and arrange), cessation assistance awareness, quit attempts, and treatment preference among respondents to a TCI survey with a sample of respondents from the National Adult Tobacco Survey (NATS) and a sample from the Louisiana Adult Tobacco Survey (LATS). In 2010, more TCI respondents were asked if they smoked, advised to quit, helped to set a quit date, counseled, and arranged to be contacted for follow-up than respondents to NATS or LATS.

Assessing the Relationship Between Mental Distress and Tobacco Use in Post-Katrina and Rita Louisiana.

Background: The relationship between mental health status and smoking is complicated and often confounded by bi-directionality, yet most research on this relationship assumes exogeneity.

Objectives: The goal of this article is to implement an instrumental variable approach to (1) test the exogeneity assumption and (2) report on the association between mental health status and smoking post-disaster.

Methods: This analysis utilizes the 2006 and 2007 Louisiana Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey to examine the link between mental distress and smoking in areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.