Measures of initiation and progression to increased smoking among current menthol compared to non-menthol cigarette smokers based on data from four U.S. government surveys.

There are no large-scale, carefully designed cohort studies that provide evidence on whether menthol cigarette use is associated with a differential risk of initiating and/or progressing to increased smoking. However, questions of whether current menthol cigarette smokers initiated smoking at a younger age or are more likely to have transitioned from non-daily to daily cigarette use compared to non-menthol smokers can be addressed using cross-sectional data from U.S.

Patterns of menthol cigarette use among current smokers, overall and within demographic strata, based on data from four U.S. government surveys.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, National Health Interview Survey and Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey provide estimates of the proportions of U.S. smokers who currently use menthol cigarettes, overall and within demographic strata.

Primary measures of dependence among menthol compared to non-menthol cigarette smokers in the United States.

Previously published studies provide somewhat inconsistent evidence on whether menthol in cigarettes is associated with increased dependence. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, National Health Interview Survey, and Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey collect data on current cigarette type preference and primary measures of dependence, and thus allow examination of whether menthol smokers are more dependent than non-menthol smokers. Analyses based on combined data from multiple administrations of each of these four nationally representative surveys, using three definitions for current smokers (i.