The Relation Between Past Behavior, Intention, Planning, and Quitting Smoking: The Moderating Effect of Future Orientation

The present study examined the moderating effects of two measures of future orientation on the relation between intention, planning, and past behavior on the one hand, and quitting smoking on the other. The degree of future orientation was assessed by the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) Scale and the Stanford Time Perspective Inventory (STPI). Both CFC and STPI significantly moderated the intention–quitting behavior and past behavior–quitting behavior relationships. CFC also moderated the relation between planning and quitting behavior, whereas STPI failed to moderate the planning–quitting relation. The results indicate that the extent to which a person is future oriented represents an important moderating variable when it comes to the relation between deliberative processes and actual behavior. The implications of the results are discussed.     

From Intentions to Quit to the Actual Quitting Process: The Case of Smoking Behavior in Light of the TPB

The purpose of the present paper was to examine the path from intentions to quit smoking to the actual quitting process in light of the theory of planned behavior. Data derives from a longitudinal internet survey (N = 939) over a period of 4 months. Attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and past behavior emerged as significant direct predictors of quitting intention (R² = 34%). Ordinal regression analysis showed that intention, PBC, planning, past quit attempts and habit were significant predictors of the subsequent quitting process. Consistent with previous research the results show that addicted individuals have serious problems in sticking to their initial plans. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Inaccurate Estimation of Body Weight Prior to Smoking Cessation: Implications for Quitting and Weight Gain1

Weight gain following smoking cessation has been found to hinder successful quitting. This preliminary investigation evaluated participants' ability to accurately estimate their body weight prior to attempting to quit smoking. The subjects were 51 adults (18 females and 33 males) with a mean age of 31 years. Subjects were asked to give their most accurate estimated weight in pounds just prior to obtaining their actual weight. The results indicated that subjects underestimated their weight by 3.5 lbs (1.59 kg). Two-thirds of the subjects underestimated their weight by an average of 6.6 lbs (2.99 kg). These findings suggest that obtaining an accurate body weight prior to smoking cessation may lead to a more accurate perception of subsequent weight change and facilitate successful quitting.     

Relationships between Household Smoking Restrictions and Intention to Quit Smoking among Korean American Male Smokers in California

This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between household smoking restrictions and intentions to quit smoking among Korean American male smokers in California. We used data from the California Korean American Tobacco Use Survey (CKATUS), which was conducted in 2004 using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. Among the 2,545 respondents who participated in the CKATUS, the 387 male smokers who answered a question assessing their intention to quit smoking were included in the final analyses. In univariable analyses, smokers who reported having household smoking restrictions were more likely to intend to quit smoking as compared with those who did not (P<0.01). Other independent correlates of having an intention to quit smoking were being less than 50 yr of age, having spent more than 50% of one''s life in the US, being assimilated, and having other smokers in the household. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, the significant correlates of having an intention to quit smoking were household smoking restrictions (complete or partial restriction vs. no restriction on smoking; odds ratio, 2.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-5.28) and absence of other smokers in the household. In conclusion, smoking restrictions in the household are associated with an intention to quit smoking among Korean American male smokers in California.     

The Impact of Insurance Gain and Discussions with Healthcare Providers on Quitting Smoking

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Analyzing the ability for different mechanisms to reduce smoking rates can provide healthcare systems with information to establish the most effective smoking cessation efforts. Health insurance provides individuals with direct mechanisms to curb smoking behavior, such as access to smoking cessation resources. Gaining insurance may additionally indirectly influence smoking cessation by altering risk perceptions. Behavioral economic theory suggests that gaining health insurance may reduce current smokers' rate of discounting on the future, which could increase smoking cessation. This article aimed to evaluate the impact of insurance status (i.e., gaining any private (n = 681), gaining only public (n = 647), or remaining uninsured (n = 5,056)) as well as the impact of having a discussion with a healthcare provider about quitting smoking on smoking cessation among current adult smokers who were uninsured at the beginning of their data collection. Data for this study came from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 2003 to 2014 database. The study found that while individuals gaining public insurance was not statistically associated with smoking cessation, individuals who gained private insurance were more likely to stop smoking than individuals who remained uninsured (OR: 1.330; 95% CI: 1.019,1.737; p = 0.036). Having a discussion with a healthcare provider about quitting smoking was not associated with smoking cessation. These findings indicate that gaining private insurance may impact smoking behavior through mechanisms other than direct access to physician services.     

Employee Stress Levels and the Intention to Participate in a Worksite Smoking Cessation Program

This study examines the nature and extent of the relationship between stress levels and intentions to participate in a worksite smoking cessation program among male current smokers (n = 220) employed in an automobile manufacturing plant. A plantwide survey was conducted which measured job stress, nonjob stress, smoking behavior, and intent to participate. The results of polychotomous logistic regressions suggest that among the current smokers in this plant, job and nonjob stress were positively associated with workers' intentions to participate in a worksite smoking cessation program. Thus, contrary to the popular notion that stress diminishes the motivation to quit, employees under high levels of stress may be most receptive to educational interventions intended to persuade smokers to commit to quitting.     

企业员工组织政治知觉及其影响后果的初步研究

目的:探讨企业员工的组织政治知觉状况及其对工作压力感、工作满意感和离职意愿的影响。方法:测量314名企业员工的组织政治知觉及工作压力感、工作满意感和离职意愿,并运用层级线性回归方法详细分析组织政治知觉对其后果变量不同维度的影响关系。结果:①员工的组织政治知觉在性别、年龄和职位上存在显著性差异。②组织政治知觉的三个维度—自利行为、薪酬与晋升、同事关系对工作压力感的不同维度大都具有显著的正向预测作用。③自利行为、薪酬与晋升、同事关系是内在满意感和外在满意感的显著负向预测源。④自利行为、薪酬与晋升、同事关系是离职意愿的显著正向预测源。结论:组织政治知觉作为组织成员的一种潜在压力源,值得未来研究给予进一步的关注和研讨。     

Correlates of Continued Tobacco Use and Intention to Quit Smoking Among Russian Cancer Patients

Background  

Tobacco use among cancer patients is associated with adverse health outcomes. Little attention has been paid to tobacco use among cancer patients in developing countries, including Russia, where tobacco use is extremely high, and there is little public health infrastructure to address this issue.     

Mental Health and Readiness to Change Smoking Behavior in Daily Smoking Primary Care Patients

Purpose  

We examined the association between daily smokers’ mental health according to the five-item Mental Health Inventory and the core constructs of the transtheoretical model (TTM): stage of change, processes of change, smoking cessation self-efficacy, and decisional balance.     

A Longitudinal Test of the Theory of Planned Behavior Predicting Smoking Onset among Asthmatic and Non-asthmatic Adolescents

Despite the particularly detrimental health risks of smoking for adolescent with asthma, several studies demonstrated higher smoking rates among asthmatic adolescents than among healthy adolescents. To gain insight into underlying mechanisms, longitudinal studies on differences in smoking predictors between asthmatic and non-asthmatic adolescents are essential. This longitudinal study with two waves with an 18 months interval tests the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) among 346 asthmatic adolescents and 3,733 non-asthmatic adolescents aged 12-16 years. Structural equation models were used to test the predictive value of the TPB in these two groups. The results show, consistent with the TPB, that smoking-related cognitions (attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm) predict smoking onset via intention among both asthmatic and non-asthmatic adolescents. The TPB predicted smoking onset even stronger among adolescents with asthma. These findings may contribute to the development of tailored interventions for the prevention of smoking among asthmatic adolescents.     

Application of Azjen's Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Sunbathing, Tanning Salon Use, and Sunscreen Use Intentions and Behaviors

Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior (TOPB) was used to examine psychological determinants of high-risk UV radiation exposure-related behaviors (sunbathing, tanning salon use, and sunscreen use). Undergraduates at a midsized southeastern university were assessed on their psychological and behavioral tendencies toward high-risk UV radiation exposure-related behaviors. The results generally supported the utility of the TOPB as an explanatory model for high-risk behavior. Attitudes were strongly associated with high-risk intentions (e.g., not utilize sunscreen, use salons), whereas subjective norms were less so. Perceived behavioral control was found to moderate the relationship among attitudes, norms, and intentions to sunbathe and tan at a salon. Implications for intervention strategies and future model building in this area are discussed.     

Genetic and Cultural Transmission of Smoking Initiation: An Extended Twin Kinship Model

BACKGROUND: Considerable evidence from twin and adoption studies indicates that genetic and shared environmental factors play a significant role in the initiation of smoking behavior. Although twin and adoption designs are powerful to detect genetic and environmental influences, they do not provide information on the processes of assortative mating and parent-offspring transmission and their contribution to the variability explained by genetic and/or environmental factors. METHODS: We examined the role of genetic and environmental factors for smoking initiation using an extended kinship design. This design allows the simultaneous testing of additive and non-additive genetic, shared and individual-specific environmental factors, as well as sex differences in the expression of genes and environment in the presence of assortative mating and combined genetic and cultural transmission. A dichotomous lifetime smoking measure was obtained from twins and relatives in the Virginia 30,000 sample. RESULTS: Results demonstrate that both genetic and environmental factors play a significant role in the liability to smoking initiation. Major influences on individual differences appeared to be additive genetic and unique environmental effects, with smaller contributions from assortative mating, shared sibling environment, twin environment, cultural transmission and resulting genotype-environment covariance. The finding of negative cultural transmission without dominance led us to investigate more closely two possible mechanisms for the lower parent-offspring correlations compared to the sibling and DZ twin correlations in subsets of the data: (i) age x gene interaction, and (ii) social homogamy. Neither mechanism provided a significantly better explanation of the data, although age regression was significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed significant heritability, partly due to assortment, and significant effects of primarily non-parental shared environment on smoking initiation.     

Social Cognitive Predictors of Sun Protection Intention and Behavior

The authors investigated sunbathing behavior and intention prospectively using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Before summer, 85 young adults who intended to sunbathe completed a TPB questionnaire. After summer, 46 of them completed a second questionnaire about their summertime sunbathing behavior. The proposed model was successful in predicting both behavior and intention to use sun protection, with 45% of the variance of self-reported sunscreen use and 32% of the variance in intention explained by the TPB. Items designed to measure self-efficacy and perceived control loaded onto different factors and demonstrated discriminant validity. Self-efficacy predicted both intention and behavior (after controlling for all other TPB variables), but perceived behavioral control did not. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for potential interventions to improve sun protection behavior.     

Using Twitter to Examine Smoking Behavior and Perceptions of Emerging Tobacco Products

Background

Social media platforms such as Twitter are rapidly becoming key resources for public health surveillance applications, yet little is known about Twitter users’ levels of informedness and sentiment toward tobacco, especially with regard to the emerging tobacco control challenges posed by hookah and electronic cigarettes.

Objective

To develop a content and sentiment analysis of tobacco-related Twitter posts and build machine learning classifiers to detect tobacco-relevant posts and sentiment towards tobacco, with a particular focus on new and emerging products like hookah and electronic cigarettes.

Methods

We collected 7362 tobacco-related Twitter posts at 15-day intervals from December 2011 to July 2012. Each tweet was manually classified using a triaxial scheme, capturing genre, theme, and sentiment. Using the collected data, machine-learning classifiers were trained to detect tobacco-related vs irrelevant tweets as well as positive vs negative sentiment, using Naïve Bayes, k-nearest neighbors, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms. Finally, phi contingency coefficients were computed between each of the categories to discover emergent patterns.

Results

The most prevalent genres were first- and second-hand experience and opinion, and the most frequent themes were hookah, cessation, and pleasure. Sentiment toward tobacco was overall more positive (1939/4215, 46% of tweets) than negative (1349/4215, 32%) or neutral among tweets mentioning it, even excluding the 9% of tweets categorized as marketing. Three separate metrics converged to support an emergent distinction between, on one hand, hookah and electronic cigarettes corresponding to positive sentiment, and on the other hand, traditional tobacco products and more general references corresponding to negative sentiment. These metrics included correlations between categories in the annotation scheme (phi_{hookah-positive}=0.39; phi_{e-cigs-positive}=0.19); correlations between search keywords and sentiment (χ² ₄=414.50, P<.001, Cramer’s V=0.36), and the most discriminating unigram features for positive and negative sentiment ranked by log odds ratio in the machine learning component of the study. In the automated classification tasks, SVMs using a relatively small number of unigram features (500) achieved best performance in discriminating tobacco-related from unrelated tweets (F score=0.85).

Conclusions

Novel insights available through Twitter for tobacco surveillance are attested through the high prevalence of positive sentiment. This positive sentiment is correlated in complex ways with social image, personal experience, and recently popular products such as hookah and electronic cigarettes. Several apparent perceptual disconnects between these products and their health effects suggest opportunities for tobacco control education. Finally, machine classification of tobacco-related posts shows a promising edge over strictly keyword-based approaches, yielding an improved signal-to-noise ratio in Twitter data and paving the way for automated tobacco surveillance applications.     

Applying Quantitative Radiographic Image Markers to Predict Clinical Complications After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Pilot Study

Accurately predicting clinical outcome of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) patients is difficult. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a new fully-automated computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme of brain computed tomography (CT) images to predict prognosis of aSAH patients. A retrospective dataset of 59 aSAH patients was assembled. Each patient had 2 sets of CT images acquired at admission and prior-to-discharge. CAD scheme was applied to segment intracranial brain regions into four subregions, namely, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), and leaked extraparenchymal blood (EPB), respectively. CAD then detects sulci and computes 9 image features related to 5 volumes of the segmented sulci, EPB, CSF, WM, and GM and 4 volumetrical ratios to sulci. Subsequently, applying a leave-one-case-out cross-validation method embedded with a principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm to generate optimal feature vector, 16 support vector machine (SVM) models were built using CT images acquired either at admission or prior-to-discharge to predict each of eight clinically relevant parameters commonly used to assess patients' prognosis. Finally, a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) method was used to evaluate SVM model performance. Areas under ROC curves of 16 SVM models range from 0.62 ± 0.07 to 0.86 ± 0.07. In general, SVM models trained using CT images acquired at admission yielded higher accuracy to predict short-term clinical outcomes, while SVM models trained using CT images acquired prior-to-discharge demonstrated higher accuracy in predicting long-term clinical outcomes. This study demonstrates feasibility to predict prognosis of aSAH patients using new quantitative image markers generated by SVM models.

     

"Some of These Words I Can't Pronounce": A Qualitative Exploration of the Readability of Generic and Tailored Self-help Material for Quitting Smoking

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of disease and death. A proliferation of health information is available to educate and aid in smoking cessation, a disparity between reading levels of patients and reading estimates of health promotion literature exists. The aim of the study was to adapt computer-tailored feedback reports to different levels of readability, and to meet the needs of smokers from all social backgrounds. Focus groups were used to explore the perception of the adaptations. Results confirmed the importance of producing health promotion literature at an appropriate level of reading. However, it is essential that materials offer information and support using language that can be understood by smokers of all reading levels without being patronizing.     

私立学校1307名中学生吸烟与自尊水平调查

目的:探讨中学生吸烟与自尊水平的关系.方法:以"青少年控烟项目调查问卷"和Rosenberg10条目自尊量表对武汉市私立学校的1307名初一和初二的学生进行调查.结果:从"不吸烟"、"尝试吸烟"、"吸一整支烟"到"吸过100支烟",学生的自尊量表得分依次降低,分别为29.92、29.03、28.57、27.41;已戒烟学生的得分显著高于没有戒烟的学生;未来可能吸烟者的自尊得分显著低于未来不会吸烟的学生.结论:中学生吸烟行为与自尊水平有一定相关性.在青少年吸烟的干预措施中,应加强提高自尊心理水平的健康教育.     

Applying a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective to Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Implications for Schools

A cognitive neuroscience perspective seeks to understand behavior, in this case disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), in terms of dysfunction in cognitive processes underpinned by neural processes. While this type of approach has clear implications for clinical mental health practice, it also has implications for school-based assessment and intervention with children and adolescents who have disruptive behavior and aggression. This review articulates a cognitive neuroscience account of DBD by discussing the neurocognitive dysfunction related to emotional empathy, threat sensitivity, reinforcement-based decision-making, and response inhibition. The potential implications for current and future classroom-based assessments and interventions for students with these deficits are discussed.     

Smoking and the Eysenck personality dimensions: an interactive model

Evidence relating smoking and neuroticism is inconsistent; some studies report no significant relationship, while others report a positive association. The present study examined smoking in relation to neuroticism (N), extraversion (E) and psychoticism (P), in the light of predictions that interactions between N and E, and between N and P, could underly these inconsistent findings. The subjects were female student nurses (N = 270), of whom 34.1% were smokers. Discriminant analyses revealed that E differentiated most strongly between smokers and non-smokers. N and P did not add to the predictive power of the discriminant function, but the N x P and N x E interactions did make significant contributions. Among extraverts, and among subjects low in psychoticism, N was not related to smoking; but among introverts, and among subjects high in psychoticism, the relationship was significant and positive.     

Sleep hygiene behaviours in Iranian adolescents: an application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Poor sleep quality and inadequate sleep in adolescents are a rising trend globally. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)—which centres on an individual's attitude toward performing the behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control—has been applied to examine sleep hygiene behaviours in young adults. We expanded on prior works by using a longitudinal design to examine the effects of TPB factors, together with sleep hygiene knowledge and planning constructs, on sleep hygiene behaviours and on sleep quality and health in a group of Iranian adolescents. A total of 1822 healthy adolescents (mean age = 13.97) from 25 high schools in Qazvin, Iran, completed a self‐reported survey at baseline and 6 months later. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to delineate the pathway from adolescents’ sleep hygiene knowledge, TPB constructs of their behavioural intentions and sleep hygiene behaviours and their sleep quality and self‐reported health. The SEM model demonstrated that although behavioural intention, coping planning and action planning predicted the sleep hygiene behaviours positively 6 months later with acceptable model fit [comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.936; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.902; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.080; standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.044], sleep hygiene knowledge did not predict behavioural intentions significantly. Sleep hygiene behaviours were associated with sleep quality and psychiatric wellbeing. Thus, the TPB, combined with coping and action planning, is useful in understanding the sleep hygiene behaviours of adolescents. Health‐care providers may want to emphasize TPB constructs and coping and action planning to improve adolescents’ sleep hygiene behaviours, rather than rely solely upon increasing adolescents’ sleep hygiene knowledge.