Home About us Contact | |||
Daily Cigarette Consumption (daily + cigarette_consumption)
Selected AbstractsPre-cessation nicotine replacement therapy: pragmatic randomized trialADDICTION, Issue 8 2010Chris Bullen ABSTRACT Aims To determine the effectiveness of 2 weeks' pre-cessation nicotine patches and/or gum on smoking abstinence at 6 months. Design Pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Setting New Zealand. Participants Eleven hundred adult, dependent smokers who called the New Zealand Quitline between March 2006 and May 2007 for support to stop smoking were randomized to 2 weeks of nicotine patches and/or gum prior to their target quit day followed by usual care (8 weeks of patches and/or gum plus support calls from a Quitline adviser), or to usual care alone. Measurements The primary outcome was self-reported 7-day point prevalence smoking abstinence 6 months after quit day. Secondary outcomes included continuous abstinence, cotinine-verified abstinence, daily cigarette consumption, withdrawal symptoms and adverse events. Findings Six months after quit day 125 (22.7%) participants in the pre-cessation group and 116 (21.0%) in the control group reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence (relative risk 1.08 95% CI: 0.86, 1.35, P = 0.4, risk difference 1.7%, 95% CI: ,3.2%, 6.6%). However, when pooled in a meta-analysis with other pre-cessation trials a moderate benefit of about a one-quarter increase in cessation rates was evident. There was no difference in adverse events between groups. Conclusions In this, the largest pre-cessation NRT trial to date, using NRT 2 weeks before the target quit day was safe and well tolerated but offered no benefit over usual care. However, in conjunction with previous pre-cessation trials there appears to be a moderate benefit, but not as large as that seen in most smaller trials. [source] Compliance and support for bans on smoking in licensed venues in Australia: findings from the International Tobacco Control Four-Country SurveyAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 4 2010Jae Cooper Abstract Objective: To examine attitudes towards and compliance with the recent Australian bans on smoking in licensed venues, and to explore effects on smoking behaviour. Methods: Three Australian states (Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia) implemented a total ban on smoking in all enclosed licensed premises in 2006, and two others (Victoria and New South Wales) did so in mid-2007. We used data from smokers residing in these states for each of the six waves of the ITC-4 country survey (2002,2007; average n=1,694). Results: Consistent with the majority of international findings, observed compliance was reported by more than 90% of smokers from a pre-ban situation of indoor smoking being the norm. Attitudes became more positive in the year before the ban, but more than doubled in the year the bans were implemented. The associations found for the leading states were replicated by the lagging states a year later. We found no evidence for any increase in permitting smoking inside the home after the bans took effect. Further, we were unable to find any evidence of reductions in daily cigarette consumption or any increase in quitting activity due to the bans. Implications: These results add to a growing body of international research that suggests that smokers are readily able to comply with, and increasingly support, smoke-free bars, though the bans may have limited effect on their smoking habits. [source] Low daily smoking estimates derived from sales monitored tobacco use in six remote predominantly Aboriginal communitiesAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2010Rosalind Butler Abstract Objective: To estimate daily cigarette consumption among residents aged 15+ in five remote central Australian predominantly Aboriginal communities. Methods: Estimation of average daily cigarette consumption derived from a 12-month (2007) complete sales audit of cigarettes in isolated communities where no other tobacco supplies are available, using two assumptions of smoking prevalence (50% and 70%). Results: Across the five communities, daily smoking consumption averaged 8.3 cigarettes per day (assuming a 50% smoking prevalence) or 5.9 cigarettes per day (assuming a 70% smoking prevalence). The corresponding amounts spent per smoker per day were $4.13 or $2.95, representing 12.7%-9.1% of the maximum $453.30 per fortnight unemployment allowance for a single person. Conclusion: While smoking prevalence may be high in these Aboriginal communities, smoking frequency is low compared to that in the wider Australian community. These results are consistent with other studies. Approaches to cessation premised on assumptions of nicotine dependence in such populations are likely to be misconceived. [source] |