The Importance of Filter Collection for Accurate Measurement of Cigarette Smoking.

Objectives: We examined the impact of cigarette filter collection on reports of cigarettes per day (CPD) versus self-reported CPD and to assess the utility of a pre-intervention baseline period in smoking studies.

Methods: Using baseline data from 522 non-treatment seeking smokers, we assessed differences in self-reported CPD via phone screen (CPD PS) and during baseline (CPD BL). We analyzed self-reported cigarette measures to predict carbon monoxide (CO), a measure of smoke exposure.

Examining Hookah as an Introduction to Nicotine Products among College Students.

Background: Limited data exist on what young adults report as their first-ever nicotine product; some evidence suggests that they report hookah as their first product smoked.

Objectives: This study reports on the first nicotine product used among undergraduates who had ever tried tobacco, and explores correlates of hookah as that first product.

Methods: Participants included a convenience sample of undergraduate students (n = 1538) at four universities in upstate New York during fall 2013.

Establishing consensus on survey measures for electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery system use: Current challenges and considerations for researchers.

The development and validation of survey measures for electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use has not kept pace with the burgeoning research on them. This, along with the diverse and evolving nature of ENDS, presents several unique measurement challenges and hampers surveillance and tobacco regulatory research efforts. In this commentary, we identify four important areas related to ENDS use (describing ENDS products; defining current use; evaluating frequency and quantity of use; and characterizing devices and e-liquids) and summarize a selective review of the measurement and definitions of these constructs across prominent national tobacco use surveys and 30 projects within the 14 federally-funded Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science.

Reduced nicotine content cigarette advertising: How false beliefs and subjective ratings affect smoking behavior.

Introduction: Tobacco advertising can create false beliefs about health harms that are reinforced by product design features. Reduced nicotine content (RNC) cigarettes may reduce harm, but research has not addressed advertising influences. This study examined RNC cigarette advertising effects on false harm beliefs, and how these beliefs - along with initial subjective ratings of RNC cigarettes - affect subsequent smoking behaviors.

Attrition during a randomized controlled trial of reduced nicotine content cigarettes as a proxy for understanding acceptability of nicotine product standards.

Aims: To determine (1) if nicotine content affects study attrition-a potential behavioral measure of acceptability-in a trial that required compliance with three levels of reduced nicotine content (RNC) cigarettes, and (2) if attrition is associated with subjective and behavioral responses to RNC cigarettes.

Design: Secondary analysis of a 35-day, parallel-design, open-label, randomized controlled trial. After a 5-day baseline period, participants were randomized to smoke for three 10-day periods: their preferred brand (control group) or RNC cigarettes with three nicotine levels in a within-subject stepdown (one group: high-moderate-low) or non-stepdown (five groups: high-low-moderate, low-moderate-high, low-high-moderate, moderate-low-high, moderate-high-low) fashion.

The relationship between childhood physical and emotional abuse and smoking cessation among U.S. women and men.

Childhood maltreatment is associated with increased likelihood of smoking. The purpose of the current investigation was to compare quitting motives, quit attempts, and quit success between U.S.

Nicotine withdrawal and dependence among smokers with a history of childhood abuse.

Introduction: Previous studies have found that those with a history of childhood abuse are more likely to smoke cigarettes than those without a history of abuse. Mechanisms underlying this greater prevalence are unclear. We examined whether current smokers with a history of childhood abuse reported greater levels of nicotine dependence and more severe nicotine withdrawal symptoms.