The continuum of smoking behavior among children and adolescents can be described in stages of preparation, trying, experimentation, regular smoking, and nicotine dependence or addiction. Persons who have smoked can discontinue at any stage, but quitting becomes more difficult as smokers progress through the continuum and become increasingly dependent on nicotine. Nicotine addiction is characte...

BACKGROUND To examine if the recommended taxonomies for the stages of youth smoking onset are aligned with the beliefs of smoking youth. METHODS The SHAPES Tobacco Module was administered to 23,047 students (grades 9 to 13) in a convenience sample of 29 secondary schools during the 2000-2001 school year in the province of Ontario, Canada. Cross-tabs were used to compare a student's self-perce...

BACKGROUND Non-random mating affects population variation for substance use and dependence. Developmentally, mate selection leading to positive spousal correlations for genetic similarity may result in increased risk for substance use and misuse in offspring. Mate selection varies by cohort and thus, assortative mating in one generation may produce marked changes in rates of substance use in th...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the role of smoking as a risk factor for higher stages and grades of bladder cancer, for although smoking is considered to be one of the most important risk factors for bladder cancer, its relationship to grade and stage is not clear. PATIENTS AND METHODS In all, 300 patients diagnosed with bladder cancer were studied to compare the grade and stage and bladder cancer be...

AIMS To examine whether the observed diversity between national patterns of smoking prevalence could require modification of the World Health Organization (WHO) linear model for an international 'smoking pandemic' (a worldwide epidemic) to address data from non-western countries. METHOD We conducted secondary research using current measures in three publicly available databases: Globalink, th...

BACKGROUND This study was undertaken to compare the sleep profiles of healthy infants in swaddling and sleeping bag conditions. METHODS Polysomnographs of 85 healthy infants (40 in the study group, 45 in the control group) with a mean age of 7.5 weeks were recorded in the sleeping laboratory. A positive decision from the local Ethics Committee and the written consent of the parents were obtai...

Introduction: To assess the rate of cervical lymph node involvement in patients with supraglottic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) with no lymph node in clinical assessments and radiological studies. Materials and Methods: Fifty-six patients who underwent elective dissection of the cervical lymph node of the second through fourth level were enrolled, and pathologic evaluation of the dissected lymp...

BACKGROUND Given the increase in life expectancy among HIV-positive individuals attributable to antiretroviral therapies, cigarette smoking now represents one of the most salient health risks confronting the HIV-positive population. Despite this risk, very few efforts to date have been made to target persons living with HIV for smoking cessation treatment, and no efforts have been made to explo...

Effectiveness studies among pregnant and postpartum women indicate that pregnancy and the postpartum period provide a window of opportunity to promote smoking cessation and smoke-free families. Yet, there is a lack of information about interventions that are portable to routine care. The goal of this article is to describe the structure, basic strategies, and the application of a smoking cessat...