Janet Okamoto

Use of E-Cigarettes Among Current Smokers: Associations Among Reasons for Use, Quit Intentions, and Current Tobacco Use

INTRODUCTION Research has documented growing availability and use of e-cigarettes in the United States over the last decade. METHODS We conducted a national panel survey of current adult cigarette smokers to assess attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors relating to e-cigarette use in the United States (N = 2,254). RESULTS Among current cigarette smokers, 20.4% reported current use of e-cigarettes on some days and 3.7% reported daily use. Reported reasons for e-cigarette use included: quit smoking (58.4%), reduce smoking (57.9%), and reduce health risks (51.9%). No significant differences in sociodemographic characteristics between e-cigarette users and nonusers were observed. Prior quit attempts were reported more frequently among e-cigarette users (82.8%) than nonusers (74.0%). Intention to quit was reported more frequently among e-cigarette users (64.7%) than nonusers (46.8%). Smokers intending to quit were more likely to be e-cigarette users than those not intending to quit (odds ratio [OR] = 1.90, CI =1.36-2.65). Those who used e-cigarettes to try to quit smoking (OR = 2.25, CI = 1.25-4.05), reduce stress (OR = 3.66, CI = 1.11-12.09), or because they cost less (OR = 3.42, CI = 1.64-7.13) were more likely to report decreases in cigarette smoking than those who did not indicate these reasons. Smokers who reported using e-cigarettes to quit smoking (OR = 16.25, CI = 8.32-31.74) or reduce stress (OR = 4.30, CI = 1.32-14.09) were significantly more likely to report an intention to quit than those who did not indicate those reasons for using e-cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS Nearly a quarter of smokers in our study reported e-cigarettes use, primarily motivated by intentions to quit or reduce smoking. These findings identify a clinical and public health opportunity to re-engage smokers in cessation efforts.

An Examination of Electronic Cigarette Content on Social Media: Analysis of E-Cigarette Flavor Content on Reddit

In recent years, the emerging electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) marketplace has shown great development prospects all over the world. Reddit, one of the most popular forums in the world, has a very large user group and thus great influence. This study aims to gain a systematic understanding of e-cigarette flavors based on data collected from Reddit. Flavor popularity, mixing, characteristics, trends, and brands are analyzed. Fruit flavors were mentioned the most (n = 15,720) among all the posts and were among the most popular flavors (n = 2902) used in mixed blends. Strawberry and vanilla flavors were the most popular for e-juice mixing. The number of posts discussing e-cigarette flavors has increased sharply since 2014. Mt. Baker Vapor and Hangen were the most popular brands discussed among users. Information posted on Reddit about e-cigarette flavors reflected consumers’ interest in a variety of flavors. Our findings suggest that Reddit could be used for data mining and analysis of e-cigarette-related content. Understanding how e-cigarette consumers’ view and utilize flavors within their vaping experience and how producers and marketers use social media to promote flavors and sell products could provide valuable information for regulatory decision-makers.

A bibliometric analysis on tobacco regulation investigators

BackgroundTo facilitate the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) has identified research priorities under the umbrella of tobacco regulatory science (TRS). As a newly integrated field, the current boundaries and landscape of TRS research are in need of definition. In this work, we conducted a bibliometric study of TRS research by applying author topic modeling (ATM) on MEDLINE citations published by currently-funded TRS principle investigators (PIs).ResultsWe compared topics generated with ATM on dataset collected with TRS PIs and topics generated with ATM on dataset collected with a TRS keyword list. It is found that all those topics show a good alignment with FDA’s funding protocols. More interestingly, we can see clear interactive relationships among PIs and between PIs and topics. Based on those interactions, we can discover how diverse each PI is, how productive they are, which topics are more popular and what main components each topic involves. Temporal trend analysis of key words shows the significant evaluation in four prime TRS areas.ConclusionsThe results show that ATM can efficiently group articles into discriminative categories without any supervision. This indicates that we may incorporate ATM into author identification systems to infer the identity of an author of articles using topics generated by the model. It can also be useful to grantees and funding administrators in suggesting potential collaborators or identifying those that share common research interests for data harmonization or other purposes. The incorporation of temporal analysis can be employed to assess the change over time in TRS as new projects are funded and the extent to which new research reflects the funding priorities of the FDA.

Network analysis of global tobacco control collaboration: data from the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH)

BackgroundThe World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) is held every three years to foster communication and collaboration on global tobacco control. Very little is known about the nature of interactions between WCTOH attendees and their linkages to tobacco control organizations, so knowing this information could help improve tobacco control efforts.MethodsAt the 2015 WCTOH, we implemented an online survey to assess barriers to global tobacco control activities, which information sources they use for tobacco control information, and with whom they interact regarding tobacco control.ResultsA total of 169 respondents completed the survey, with responses from all six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. Respondents worked in all areas of tobacco control; the most common were research (29.2%) and patient care/treatment (23.3%). The top barriers faced regarding tobacco control activities were: funding is weak (56.8%), government commitment (45.0%), tobacco industry interference (43.8%), and lack of coordination (34.3%). The network analysis identified Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) and Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) as the two most prominent groups that people belonged to and where they went to exchange information and best practices. Important regional and country specific groups also appear to be growing, such as the African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) and the Argentinian Association of Tabacology (ASAT).DiscussionMapping and better understanding the global tobacco control network is important for informing knowledge exchange and best practices, particularly as increasing attention is being focused on global tobacco control efforts in low- and middle-income countries in particular.ConclusionsThe present study demonstrates that even a subsample of the WCTOH shows considerable collaboration. The full WCTOH network should be mapped in order to foster greater collaboration that has the the potential to improve global tobacco control efforts.

An Author Topic Analysis of Tobacco Regulation Investigators

To facilitate the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) has identified research priorities under the umbrella of tobacco regulatory science (TRS). As a newly introduced field, the current landscape of TRS research is unclear. In this work, we conducted a bibliometric study of TRS research by applying author topic modeling on MEDLINE citations published by currently-funded TRS principle investigators. Our initial results show that author topic modeling can address the issue of research interests reasonably. Furthermore, a network involving authors, topics and words can be established for more detailed bibliometric analysis. This network may also be useful to grantees and funding administrators in suggesting potential collaborators or identifying those that share common research interests for data harmonization or other purposes.

An author topic analysis on NCI DCP/DCCPS PIs

To facilitate the cancer study at Mayo Clinic, Mayo CPC (Cancer Population Control) initiated a study on the landscape of NCI funded principle investigators (PIs), who focus on cancer preventions, cancer control and population science. In this work, we conducted a bibliometric analysis on such research by applying author topic modeling (ATM) on MEDLINE citations published by currently-funded PIs from both DCP (Division of Cancer Preventions) and DCCPS (Division of Cancer Control and Population Science. Our initial results show that ATM can address the issue of research interests reasonably. Furthermore, a network involving authors, topics and words can be established for more detailed bibliometric analysis. This network may also be useful to grantees and funding administrators in suggesting potential collaborators.

Global Cancer Prevention

The past few decades have produced significant improvement and advances in health, economic development and growth, and standards of living on a global scale. Major achievements in global health have produced greater life expectancy, enhanced maternal and child health, and reduced the spread and impact of infectious diseases. Yet major barriers to human health and development persist, with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) now the major cause of death and disability (World Health Organization, The global burden of disease: 2004 update. World Health Organization, Geneva, 2008a). Noncommunicable diseases, including cancer, now account for more than half of all global mortality (Beaglehole et al., Lancet 377:1438–1447, 2011a) and are an increasing burden on the health and wealth of countries regardless of income or level of development. Some of the same social and economic changes that have heralded improvement and advances have also resulted in the risk factors for NCDs becoming widespread.