Harnessing hope and bolstering knowledge of how to quit: a qualitative investigation of including efficacy content in tobacco risk communication via daily SMS.

Introduction: Tobacco warning labels typically feature confronting health risk messages which aim to evoke fear to change behaviour. Evidence shows these graphic health warning labels (GHWLs) can be effective but can also lead to unintended responses, including avoidance or defensiveness. Theory suggests that targeting beliefs about the likelihood and benefits of successfully quitting may increase adaptive responses to risk information.

Self-reported attention and responses to cigarette package labels at the end of a two-week randomized trial of cigarette package labeling configurations.

Introduction: Cigarette package inserts that describe quitting benefits and tips may promote cessation; however, research is needed to understand better their effects, including potentially enhancing the effects of pictorial health warning labels (PHWLs).

Methods: A randomized trial with a 2×2 factorial design was conducted with adult smokers (n=356) assigned to either small text-only health warning labels (HWLs; control); inserts with cessation messages, and the small text-only HWLs (inserts-only); large PHWLs (PHWLs-only); both inserts and PHWLs (inserts + PHWLs). Participants received a 14-day supply of their preferred cigarettes with packs labeled to reflect their group.

Differential Responses to Cigarette Package Labeling Alternatives Among Adults Who Smoke: Results From a Randomized Trial.

Introduction: Little experimental research has evaluated whether the effects of cigarette package inserts with efficacy messages and/or pictorial health warning labels (PHWLs) differ across key subgroups of adults who smoke.

Aims And Methods: Adults who reported currently smoking (n = 367) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: Small text-only HWLs on pack sides (control); inserts with efficacy messages and small HWLs (inserts-only); PHWLs showing harms of smoking (PHWLs-only); both (inserts + PHWLs). Participants received a 14-day supply of cigarettes labeled to reflect their group.

Barriers to smoking interventions in community healthcare settings: a scoping review.

Smoking is one of the major causes of preventable death and is considered the greatest threat to global public health. While the prevalence of smoking has decreased, population growth has led to an increase in the absolute number of smokers. There are many proven smoking cessation interventions available to support smokers in their quit attempts.

Recruitment Methods, Inclusion, and Successful Participation in a Longitudinal Clinical Trial Using Ecological Momentary Assessment.

Underrepresentation of historically marginalized populations in clinical trials continues to threaten the validity of health intervention research. Evidence supports the merits of intercept and other proactive forms of recruitment for achieving more equitable representation. However, researchers also report lower retention and adherence to protocols among these populations, particularly in longitudinal studies.

Combining Inserts With Warning Labels on Cigarette Packs to Promote Smoking Cessation: A 2-Week Randomized Trial.

Background: Cigarette pack inserts with messages on cessation benefits and advice are a promising labeling policy that may help promote smoking cessation.

Purpose: To assess insert effects, with and without accompanying pictorial health warning labels(HWLs), on hypothesized psychosocial and behavioral outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a 2 × 2 between-subject randomized trial (inserts with efficacy messages vs.

COVID Protection Behaviors, Mental Health, Risk Perceptions, and Control Beliefs: A Dynamic Temporal Network Analysis of Daily Diary Data.

Background: To control infections, behavioral non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing and hygiene measures (masking, hand hygiene) were implemented widely during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, adherence to NPIs has also been implied in an increase in mental health problems. However, the designs of many existing studies are often poorly suited to disentangle complex relationships between NPI adherence, mental health symptoms, and health-related cognitions (risk perceptions, control beliefs).

Relationship between attentional bias and stimulus control: An observational study of real-world eating patterns.

Background: Attentional bias towards food related stimuli has been proposed as a potential target for dieting intervention, however the evidence supporting a relationship between attentional bias and food intake is mixed. Theory holds that food related attentional bias should be positively associated with measures of stimulus-controlled eating, and that implicit processes such as impulsivity moderate this association. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the proposed relationship between food-related attentional bias and stimulus control exists, and whether it is moderated by impulsivity.

A mixed-method study of perceptions of cigarette pack inserts among adult smokers from New York and South Carolina exposed as part of a randomized controlled trial.

While many countries require prominent pictorial health warning labels (PHWLs) on the outside of cigarette packs to communicate the harms of smoking, there is evidence that cigarette pack inserts that contain efficacy messages may enhance the effectiveness of PHWLs. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulatory authority to communicate with smokers through inserts. While current labeling regulations do not require inclusion of inserts, the FDA could implement them in the future.

Curb the spread: Leveraging intensive longitudinal data to unravel within- and between-person processes in adherence to nonpharmaceutical interventions during COVID-19.

Objectives: Adhering to behavioral recommendations and nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) is a key to control COVID-19 infection rates. However, rates have decreased globally, and potentially modifiable determinants of ongoing adherence and their interaction with social and physical momentary environments are still poorly understood. Here, we comprehensively examine within-person variations and between-person differences in known behavioral determinants (capability and motivation), as well as the moderating role of situational variable environmental factors (opportunity) in predicting adherence to hygiene and social distancing behaviors.

Withdrawal: A key consideration in evaluating whether highly processed foods are addictive.

Researchers are currently debating whether theories of addiction explain compulsive overeating of highly processed (HP) foods (i.e., industrially created foods high in refined carbohydrates and/or fat), which contributes to obesity and diet-related disease.

A Pilot Randomised Trial Investigating the Effects of Including Efficacy Messaging on Tobacco Warning Labels.

Introduction: Smokers can respond defensively to health risk communication such as on-pack warning labels, potentially reducing their effectiveness. Theory suggests that risk perception together with self-efficacy reduces defensive responses and predicts target behaviors. Currently, tobacco warning labels globally predominantly target risk and do not explicitly consider efficacy.

Co-occurrence of food addiction, obesity, problematic substance use, and parental history of problematic alcohol use.

Objective: The present study investigates the rates of co-occurrence among food addiction (FA), problematic substance use (alcohol, cannabis, cigarettes, nicotine vaping), parental history of problematic alcohol use, and obesity as an important step to understanding whether an addictive-like eating phenotype exists.

Method: A community sample of 357 U.S.

Assessing driving-relevant attentional impairment after a multiday drinking session: A two-phase pilot study.

Background: The possibility of residual impairment of cognitive performance after multiday drinking sessions is particularly important given the potential for the deleterious effects of fatigue and hangover. This pilot study aimed to devise a methodology to compare sober performance on driving-relevant attentional tasks at the end of a 4-day music festival with performance at varying levels of the breath-alcohol curve.

Methods: Fifty-two participants completed selective and sustained attention tasks at a breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) of 0.

Design of Financial Incentive Programs for Smoking Cessation: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Introduction: Financial incentive programs promote smoking cessation. However, the incentive amount which should be provided-and how this may interact with other program characteristics-is unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the design of incentive programs for smoking cessation on current smokers' perceptions of programs and willingness to enroll.

Measuring Food-Related Attentional Bias.

Food-related attentional bias has been defined as the tendency to give preferential attention to food-related stimuli. Attentional bias is of interest as studies have found that increased attentional bias is associated with obesity; others, however, have not. A possible reason for mixed results may be that there is no agreed upon measure of attentional bias: studies differ in both measurement and scoring of attentional bias.

Effect of Cytisine vs Varenicline on Smoking Cessation: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Cytisine is more effective than placebo and nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation. However, cytisine has not been tested against the most effective smoking cessation medication, varenicline, which is associated with adverse events known to lead to discontinuation of therapy.

Objective: To examine whether standard cytisine treatment (25 days) was at least as effective as standard varenicline treatment (84 days) for smoking cessation.

Incentives for smoking cessation in a rural pharmacy setting: The Tobacco Free Communities program.

Objective: Investigate the smoking-related outcomes and feasibility of a pharmacy-led financial incentive program for smoking cessation.

Design: Multi-site single-arm trial of the Tobacco Free Communities program.

Setting: Community pharmacies within the Glamorgan Spring Bay (Site 1) and George Town (Site 2) municipalities of Tasmania.

Measurement of cigarette smoking: Comparisons of global self-report, returned cigarette filters, and ecological momentary assessment.

Prior work suggests that prospective measurement of cigarette use may be more reliable and valid than retrospective self-reports. Despite several studies comparing retrospective and prospective methods, there are a myriad of prospective methods that have not been directly compared, including spent cigarette filters that are returned to the laboratory by participants and diary logs of cigarette use on an electronic device via ecological momentary assessment. The current secondary data analysis compared the reliability of retrospective global self-report, returned cigarette filters, and electronic diary logs among a sample of cigarette smokers that also use smokeless tobacco (SLT; N = 51) over two consecutive weeks.

Smokers' Perceptions of Incentivized Smoking Cessation Programs: Examining How Payment Thresholds Change With Income.

Introduction: Studies demonstrate that financial incentive programs increase smoking cessation. However, there is little guidance on which incentive magnitudes will ensure optimal enrollment and motivation levels. This study investigates current smokers' perceptions of varying incentive magnitudes to identify whether there is evidence for optimal amount(s) and whether perceptions differ by income group.

Within-Day Variability in Negative Affect Moderates Cue Responsiveness in High-Calorie Snacking.

Background: Many discretionary foods ("snacks") contribute both to individual health risks and to global issues, in particular through high carbon footprints and water scarcity. Snacking is influenced by the presence of snacking cues such as food availability, observing others eating, and negative affect. However, less is known about the mechanisms underlying the effects of negative affect.

Comfort eating: An observational study of affect in the hours immediately before, and after, snacking.

Objective: 'Comfort eating' has been used to explain real-world food choices, suggesting that individuals are drawn to energy-dense ('unhealthy') snacks when experiencing negative affect. However, this concept has rarely been studied, particularly in real-world settings. Similarly, the effects of snacking on subsequent affect are also poorly understood.

Effects of a Mobile App Called Quittr, Which Utilizes Premium Currency and Games Features, on Improving Engagement With Smoking Cessation Intervention: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Numerous mobile health (mHealth) apps have been developed to support smokers attempting to quit smoking. Although these apps have been reported to be successful, only modest improvements in the quit rate have been measured. It has been proposed that efforts to improve user engagement and retention may improve the quit rate further.

Glucocorticoid ultradian rhythmicity differentially regulates mood and resting state networks in the human brain: A randomised controlled clinical trial.

Adrenal glucocorticoid secretion into the systematic circulation is characterised by a complex rhythm, composed of the diurnal variation, formed by changes in pulse amplitude of an underlying ultradian rhythm of short duration hormonal pulses. To elucidate the potential neurobiological significance of glucocorticoid pulsatility in man, we have conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, three-way crossover clinical trial on 15 healthy volunteers, investigating the impact of different glucocorticoid rhythms on measures of mood and neural activity under resting conditions by recruiting functional neuroimaging, computerised behavioural tests and ecological momentary assessments. Endogenous glucocorticoid biosynthesis was pharmacologically suppressed, and plasma levels of corticosteroid restored by hydrocortisone replacement in three different regimes, either mimicking the normal ultradian and circadian profile of the hormone, or retaining the normal circadian but abolishing the ultradian rhythm of the hormone, or by our current best oral replacement regime which results in a suboptimal circadian and ultradian rhythm.