Real-world impact of quitline interventions for provider-referred smokers.

Background: The healthcare provider-referral quitline model has potential to help identify and connect more smokers to effective cessation services as compared to the self-referral model alone. However, research is limited as to whether provider-referred smokers, who may have more barriers to quitting, can have similar rates of quit success using traditional quitline interventions as self-referred smokers.

Purpose: To (1) determine how provider-referred smokers may differ from self-referred smokers in their demographics, service utilization, and quit rates and (2) quantify the impact of traditional quitline services on provider-referred smokers' ability to quit.

Recent increases in efficiency in cigarette nicotine delivery: implications for tobacco control.

Introduction: Recent increases in nicotine yield of cigarettes sold in the United States have been attributed by tobacco manufacturers to natural variation in agricultural products. We tested this assertion using data reported by the manufacturers.

Methods: Data were collected from the annual reports filed with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health by 4 major manufacturers of cigarettes from 1997 to 2012.

Smokeless tobacco products sold in Massachusetts from 2003 to 2012: trends and variations in brand availability, nicotine contents and design features.

Background: Sales of smokeless tobacco products have increased in the USA. More than one in eight males in the 12th grade are current users of smokeless tobacco. Surveillance data examining nicotine levels of smokeless tobacco subsequent to 2006 have not been reported in the literature.

Integrating tobacco cessation quitlines into health care: Massachusetts, 2002-2011.

QuitWorks is a Massachusetts referral program that links health care organizations, providers, and patients to the state's tobacco cessation quitline and provides feedback reporting. Designed collaboratively with all major Massachusetts health plans, QuitWorks was launched in April 2002. In 2010, approximately 340 institutions and practices used QuitWorks.

A longitudinal study of medicaid coverage for tobacco dependence treatments in Massachusetts and associated decreases in hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease.

Background: Insurance coverage of tobacco cessation medications increases their use and reduces smoking prevalence in a population. However, uncertainty about the impact of this coverage on health care utilization and costs is a barrier to the broader adoption of this policy, especially by publicly funded state Medicaid insurance programs. Whether a publicly funded tobacco cessation benefit leads to decreased medical claims for tobacco-related diseases has not been studied.

The impact of Massachusetts' smoke-free workplace laws on acute myocardial infarction deaths.

Objectives: We examined the rate of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) deaths in Massachusetts before and after the implementation of a comprehensive smoke-free workplace law in July 2004.

Methods: We used Poisson regression models to examine the impact of the state law in cities and towns with and without previous local smoking bans and the effect of the local laws for the period of 1999 through 2006.

Results: The AMI mortality rate decreased by 7.

Medicaid coverage for tobacco dependence treatments in Massachusetts and associated decreases in smoking prevalence.

Background: Approximately 50% of smokers die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. In July 2006, the Massachusetts health care reform law mandated tobacco cessation coverage for the Massachusetts Medicaid population. The new benefit included behavioral counseling and all medications approved for tobacco cessation treatment by the U.

Small-area estimation and prioritizing communities for tobacco control efforts in Massachusetts.

Objectives: We developed a method to evaluate geographic and temporal variations in community-level risk factors and prevalence estimates, and used that method to identify communities in Massachusetts that should be considered high priority communities for smoking interventions.

Methods: We integrated individual-level data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from 1999 to 2005 with community-level data in Massachusetts. We used small-area estimation models to assess the associations of adults' smoking status with both individual- and community-level characteristics and to estimate community-specific smoking prevalence in 398 communities.

Industry research on the use and effects of levulinic acid: a case study in cigarette additives.

Public health officials and tobacco researchers have raised concerns about the possible contributions of additives to the toxicity of cigarettes. However, little attention has been given to the process whereby additives promote initiation and addiction. Levulinic acid is a known cigarette additive.

One size does not fit all: how the tobacco industry has altered cigarette design to target consumer groups with specific psychological and psychosocial needs.

Aims: To identify whether the tobacco industry has targeted cigarette product design towards individuals with varying psychological/psychosocial needs.

Design: Internal industry documents were identified through searches of an online archival document research tool database using relevancy criteria of consumer segmentation and needs assessment.

Findings: The industry segmented consumer markets based on psychological needs (stress relief, behavioral arousal, performance enhancement, obesity reduction) and psychosocial needs (social acceptance, personal image).