Measuring disability among U.S. adolescents and young adults: A survey measurement experiment.

Objective: Disability is identified in surveys using various question sets, with little understanding of reliability across these measures, nor how these estimates may vary across age groups, including adolescents and young adults (AYA). The purpose of this study was to assess AYA prevalence of disability using two disability question sets and reliability of these measures.

Methods: AYA participants in the Policy and Communication Evaluation (PACE) Vermont Study completed a single-item disability question used in the National Survey on Health and Disability (NSHD) and Urban Institute's Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) and a six-item set on functioning (Washington Group-Short Set, WG-SS) from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) in 2021.

Patterns of Alcohol, Marijuana, and Tobacco Use Among U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults by Disability Status: 2015-2019.

Purpose: To estimate the national prevalence of tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol use among U.S. adolescents (age 12-17) and young adults (aged 18-25; adolescents and young adults [AYAs]) with a disability and examine associations between disability and substance use from 2015 to 2019.

Young Adults' Knowledge of State Cannabis Policy: Implications for Studying the Effects of Legalization in Vermont.

Objectives: Cannabis policy evaluations commonly assume equal policy exposure across a state's population using date of implementation as the key independent variable. This study aimed to explore policy knowledge as another measure of exposure and describe the sociodemographic, cognitive, and behavioral correlates of cannabis policy knowledge in young adults in Vermont.

Methods: Data are from the PACE Vermont Study (Spring 2019), an online cohort study of Vermonters (12-25).

Latent Classes of Perceived Addictiveness Predict Marijuana, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use in Youth and Young Adults.

Mass media substance use prevention efforts target addiction perceptions in young people. This study examined youth and young adults' (YAs) perceived addictiveness across several substances and the associations between addiction perceptions and substance use. Data were collected in 2019 in an online cohort study of Vermonters aged 12-25.

Effects of Vaping Prevention Messages on Electronic Vapor Product Beliefs, Perceived Harms, and Behavioral Intentions among Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Youth have been the focus of electronic vapor product (EVP) prevention efforts though young adults had similar increases in current EVP use from 2015-2019. This study tested messages to reduce EVP use in young adults. Eight messages on vaping related harms and addictiveness combined with themes on social use and flavors were selected for inclusion in an online randomized controlled trial.

Wellness and Coping of Physicians Who Worked in ICUs During the Pandemic: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional North American Survey.

Objectives: Few surveys have focused on physician moral distress, burnout, and professional fulfilment. We assessed physician wellness and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Cross-sectional survey using four validated instruments.

Tailored text message and web intervention for smoking cessation in U.S. socioeconomically-disadvantaged young adults: A randomized controlled trial.

The prevalence of cigarette smoking in young adults is higher among those with socioeconomic disadvantage than those without. Low treatment-seeking among young adult smokers is compounded by few efficacious smoking cessation interventions for this group, particularly socioeconomically-disadvantaged young adults (SDYA) who smoke cigarettes. The goal of this study was to test a tailored smoking-cessation intervention for SDYA.

Exploring Definitions of "Addiction" in Adolescents and Young Adults and Correlation with Substance Use Behaviors.

(1) Background: Young people engage in addictive behaviors, but little is known about how they understand addiction. The present study examined how young people describe addiction in their own words and correlations between their definitions and substance use behaviors. (2) Methods: Young adults (n = 1146) in the PACE Vermont Study responded to an open-ended item “what does “addiction” mean?” in 2019.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions to induce attempts to quit tobacco among adults not ready to quit.

The prevalence of past-year smoking cessation remains below 10% in the U.S. Most who smoke are not ready to quit in the near future.

Disparities in Tobacco Use by Disability and Type: Findings From the 2019 National Health Interview Survey.

Introduction: People with disabilities report a higher prevalence of cigarette use than people without disabilities. However, evidence is limited on the relationships between disability type, degree of functional difficulty, and other tobacco product use.

Methods: Data from the 2019 U.

COVID-related distress, mental health, and substance use in adolescents and young adults.

Background: This study examined the impact of COVID-related disruptions on mental health and substance use in young people residing in a state with an initially lower COVID burden and earlier reopening of in-person learning than other states.

Methods: Data come from Waves 3 (Fall 2019) and 4 (Fall 2020) of the Policy and Communication Evaluation (PACE) Vermont, an online cohort study of adolescents (ages 12-17) and young adults (ages 18-25). Participants in Wave 4 (212 adolescents; 662 young adults) completed items on COVID-related stressors, the impact of the pandemic on their substance use, brief mental health scales, and past 30-day substance use.

A Risk Management Perspective on Climate Change: Lessons Learned from the Nuclear Industry.

Despite the widely acknowledged role of the anthropogenic drivers of climate change, there has been little success in developing a clear overview of the strengths and weaknesses of counter-measures or developing a consensus on their application. Problems with conventional approaches arise from the strongly coupled, multidisciplinary issues involved and the long timescales (centuries or more) over which some key processes operate. Here we outline an alternative approach based on experience gained in risk assessment for an area with similar challenges-the geological disposal of radioactive waste.

Optimizing Images for an E-Cigarette Messaging Campaign: Liking and Perceived Effectiveness.

Introduction: Given the prevalence of electronic vapor product (EVP) use among young people in the US, there is a need for effective vaping education campaigns. This study tested 32 images for liking and perceived effectiveness (PE) to identify optimal images for a messaging campaign.

Method: Images were selected from current campaigns, warning labels, and other images based on young adult reasons for use.

Risk management for pandemics: a novel approach: "Hindsight is 20/20" English proverb.

The impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic illustrate the global-level sensitivity to such threats. As understanding of major hazards is generally based on past experience and there is a lack of good historical precedents, approaches and models currently employed to assess risks and guide responses generally lack transparency and are often associated with huge, unspecified uncertainties. Fundamental challenges arise from the strongly coupled nature of the impacts of a pandemic (i.

Tobacco and Nicotine Use Among US Adult "Never Smokers" in Wave 4 (2016-2018) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.

Introduction: A common criterion for being labeled a "never smoker" is having smoked <100 lifetime cigarettes. This category is often used as an unexposed reference group to estimate the relative harm from cigarettes. We examined the amount of current and past cigarette and non-cigarette tobacco/nicotine use among adults who met this "never smoker" criterion.

Identifying message content to reduce vaping: Results from online message testing trials in young adult tobacco users.

Introduction: Young adults' e-cigarette use is associated with perceptions that e-cigarettes are less harmful or addictive than cigarettes, socially acceptable, and appealing. This study developed and tested vaping educational messages addressing these factors: 1) Harm Perceptions, 2) Addictiveness, 3) Social Use, and 4) Flavors.

Methods: Two message trials were conducted in U.

Prospective associations between nicotine beliefs and tobacco-related susceptibility, curiosity, and use in U.S. adults.

Low harm perceptions of tobacco products have been associated with use of those products in youth and adults, but this relationship has not been assessed for nicotine beliefs. This study used data from a national sample of adults aged 18-40 in Wave 9 (Spring 2016) of the Truth Initiative Young Adult Cohort Study to examine correlations and prospective associations between the latent classes of nicotine beliefs and susceptibility, curiosity, and use of tobacco products in 3122 adults who also completed Wave 10 (Fall 2016). At Wave 9, four latent classes of beliefs characterized the role of nicotine in the health risks of smoking: Class 1, large role, 51%; Class 2, large role/don't know, 9.

A Novel Use of Topical Ketamine for the Treatment of Oral Pemphigus: A Case Report.

Background: Paraneoplastic pemphigus (PNP) is a rare autoimmune blistering disease often associated with lymphoproliferative disorders. PNP causes hemorrhagic stomatitis of the lips, tongue, and cheeks which can be painful and difficult to treat.

Case History: A 54-year-old man was referred to our hospital for treatment of Stage IV lymphoma and paraneoplastic pemphigus.

Recruiting and Retaining Youth and Young Adults in the Policy and Communication Evaluation (PACE) Vermont Study: Randomized Controlled Trial of Participant Compensation.

Background: The standard approach for evaluating the effects of population-level substance use prevention efforts on youth and young adult perceptions and behaviors has been to compare outcomes across states using national surveillance data. Novel surveillance methods that follow individuals over shorter time intervals and capture awareness of substance use prevention policy and communication efforts may provide a stronger basis for their evaluation than annual cross-sectional studies.

Objective: This study aimed to identify a combination of strategies to recruit a sample of youth and young adults sufficiently representative of the Vermont population and determine how best to retain a web-based panel of youth and young adults over a 6-month period.

Impact of alcohol and drug use on smoking and cessation in socioeconomically disadvantaged young adults.

Introduction: Population studies highlight that alcohol and marijuana use are correlated with cigarette smoking and other tobacco use. The aim of our study was to describe the ways in which alcohol and drug use may affect cigarette smoking and cessation in socioeconomically-disadvantaged young adult (SDYA) smokers.

Methods: Thirty-six SDYA smokers aged 18-29 participated in eight focus groups and two individual interviews in Burlington, Vermont in 2018.

Both reducing cigarettes per day and transitioning to very low-nicotine-content cigarettes decreases demand for usual-brand cigarettes.

Reducing cigarettes per day (CPD) and transitioning to very low-nicotine-content (VLNC) cigarettes appear to decrease nicotine dependence. Other well-accepted measures of the addictiveness of cigarettes involve behavioral economic simulation models, such as the cigarette purchase task (CPT), which characterizes the reinforcing efficacy of cigarettes. Currently it is unclear whether reducing CPD or reducing nicotine through VLNC cigarettes leads to greater reductions in the reinforcing efficacy of cigarettes.

Smoking-Cessation Interventions for U.S. Young Adults: Updated Systematic Review.

Context: Recent data suggest that the onset of cigarette smoking is now more likely during young adulthood than adolescence. Additionally, the landscape of delivering smoking-cessation interventions has changed in the past decade, with the emergence of mobile phone and web-based approaches. The objective of this study is to update a 2010 systematic review of smoking-cessation interventions for U.

Latent Classes of Nicotine Beliefs Correlate with Perceived Susceptibility and Severity of Nicotine and Tobacco Products in US young adults.

Background: Pervasive misperceptions about nicotine may influence uptake of quit smoking aids and the impact of policies addressing nicotine as a tobacco product constituent.

Methods: Latent class analyses were conducted using four items on nicotine beliefs asked of 4037 adults aged 18-40 in wave 9 (February-March 2016) of the Truth Initiative Young Adult Cohort Study. Confirmatory factor analyses identified three factors from 12 items: nicotine susceptibility (NSUS), nicotine severity (NSEV), and tobacco severity (TSEV).