Author Interviews, Biomarkers, JAMA, Tobacco Research / 09.11.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Hongying Daisy Dai, PhD Professor and Associate Dean of Research The College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Tobacco use landscape has been changing in the United States with fewer combustible cigarette smokers and more e-cigarette and other emerging tobacco users. Nicotine concentration level is a key product characteristic of modern e-cigarette products and high-nicotine vaping devices have recently become available. This study seeks to examine whether biomarkers of exposure to tobacco-related toxicants have changed since 2013 among adult nicotine e-cigarette users, non-nicotine e-cigarette users, and cigarette smokers. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dental Research, NYU, Tobacco, Tobacco Research / 10.03.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Scott Thomas, PhD Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Molecular Pathobiology and Fangxi Xu, Junior Research Scientist & Clinical Research Coordinator Department of Molecular Pathobiology NYU College of Dentistry  MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings?  vaping-e-cig-smoking-tobaccoResponse: Cigarette smoking is one of the well-established causes of periodontitis, but the effect of using electronic cigarettes (e-cig), especially its long-term impact on periodontal health, is not yet clearly understood. Considering the increased popularity of e-cig use, especially among teenagers and young adults, and the known effect of high nicotine concentration in e-cigarette products, we conducted this clinical research to see if there were differences in periodontal health between e-cig users, traditional smokers, and nonsmokers. The study consisted of two visits, 6 months apart, where measures of oral and periodontal health were obtained. Our data showed significantly greater clinical attachment loss in the e-cigarette users and cigarette smokers than in the non-smokers at both study visits. In only e-cigarette users, we observed an over 0.2 mm average increase in the clinical attachment loss after 6 months.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, Pediatrics / 25.10.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carmen Lim BSc(Hons), MSc, CStat PhD Candidate National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences The University of Queensland Brisbane Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This review has systematically summarized the trends and products used for cannabis vaping using 17 studies published globally between Jan 1, 2003 and August 19, 2020. The pooled prevalence has increased for lifetime use (6.1% in 2013 to 13.6% in 2020), past-year use (7.2% in 2017 to 13.2% in 2020) and past-month use (1.6% in 2013 to 8.4% in 2020). Adolescents' preference for cannabis products may be shifting from less potent products (e.g., herbal cannabis) to highly potent vape oil and concentrates. (more…)
Author Interviews, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Smoking, Tobacco Research / 11.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mahmoud Al Rifai, MD, MPH Cardiovascular Disease Fellow Baylor College of Medicine Houston, TX Salim S. Virani, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, FASPC Professor, Section of Cardiovascular Research Director, Cardiology Fellowship Training Program Baylor College of Medicine Staff Cardiologist, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center Co-Director, VA Advanced Fellowship in Health Services Research & Development at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center Investigator, Health Policy, Quality and Informatics Program Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center HSR&D Center of Innovation Houston, TX MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: E-cigarettes have gained popularity since their introduction in the U.S. market nearly 20 years ago and their use has increased especially among younger adults. On the other hand, public health efforts aimed at curbing tobacco use over the past few decades have resulted in a decrease in cigarette use. However, state-specific laws and regional cultural differences with regards to perception of these products may result in variability in tobacco use patterns. We therefore evaluate temporal changes in e-cigarette and cigarette use in each U.S. state between the years 2016 to 2018. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Tobacco Research / 08.10.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tsu-Shuan Wu University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, California MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? “Checking your phone and vaping as you do” by Alper Çuğun is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Response: The background for this study involves the associations of household rules and parental awareness with youth tobacco use using data from the Population Assessment Tobacco and Health Study. Health concerns regarding non-cigarette tobacco products, specifically e-cigarettes, have been on the rise. We wanted to explore whether parents are up to date with the trends of popular tobacco products today and what role they may play in youth tobacco cessation and prevention. The main findings of the study revealed that parents less often suspected their children’s tobacco use if their children reported using only e-cigarettes, and other non-cigarette tobacco products, when compared with cigarettes. Additionally, we found that youth who agreed with their parents that their home has strict rules for tobacco use were less likely to initiate of tobacco use compared to youth who had different understanding of the rules from their parents or youth from households with more permissive household rules.  (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Smoking, Tobacco, Tobacco Research / 11.09.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Irfan Rahman, Ph.D. Principal Investigator. Center for Inhalation and Flavoring Toxicological Research University of Rochester MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Our study aimed to determine whether vaping and smoking affect Covid-19 proteins and genes and whether that effect changes depending on the age of the vaper/smoker. SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, enters cells by interacting with ACE2 and TMPRSS2-Furin proteins. We found that both of these proteins increase with age and are also increased by smoking or vaping. This suggests that older adults, smokers and vapers may be more prone to infection with SARS-Cov-2 and may be more likely to have severe complications. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, CDC, JAMA, Pediatrics, Tobacco Research / 18.05.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susan Hocevar Adkins, MD Lead Author, Senior Medical Officer, and Commander United States Public Health Service CDC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Since August 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and state, local, and territorial health departments have been investigating a national outbreak of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI). Although clinical presentation and outcomes of EVALI patients generally have been reported, data on adolescent patients are more limited. This article fills this gap by using data from national EVALI surveillance at CDC to examine demographic, substance use, and clinical characteristics of adolescent EVALI patients relative to young adult and adult EVALI patients. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Tobacco Research, USPSTF / 05.05.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Michael Silverstein M.D., M.P.H Professor of Pediatrics Director of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics Vice Chair of Research, Department of Pediatrics Boston University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The number of children and teens who use tobacco products continues to be a major issue in the U.S., driven largely by an increase in e-cigarette use, which makes preventing tobacco use among young people critical to the health of our nation. To help prevent kids and teens from starting to use tobacco, the Task Force recommends clinicians provide behavioral interventions, such as education or brief counseling.   (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, Pulmonary Disease / 22.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alex Hollingsworth PhD Assistant Professor O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: I've been working with Coady Wing and Ashley Bradford on a few different studies of the effects of recreational marijuana laws on drug and alcohol use. Soon after EVALI became a major issue, the prevailing theory from the CDC and others was that EVALI was caused by the use of vitamin E acetate in illegal THC vaping products. Our group read about this and we thought about some of the things that often happen in black markets for illegal drugs. For instance, during the alcohol prohibition era, bootleg alcohol producers often made and sold alcohol products that were not that safe to drink. In more recent years, there are cases where black market sellers of illegal drugs like heroin try to increase profit margins by adding other substances, which can be harmful. We thought that maybe something like that could be happening in EVALI. Perhaps people in states where recreational marijuana is legal tended to purchase marijuana products from the legal market and the legal market was not selling any marijuana vaping products that included vitamin E acetate. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Tobacco / 30.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hongying (Daisy) Dai, PhD Associate Professor Department of Biostatistics | College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha, NE MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: E-cigarette use increased dramatically from 11.7% to 27.5% for high school students and from 3.3% to 10.5% for middle school students during the periods of 2017 - 2019. In September 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that youth e-cigarette use is reaching an epidemic proportion. Exposure to secondhand aerosol (SHA) from e-cigarettes is not harmless as e-cigarettes aerosol contains nicotine and potentially harmful substances, including carbonyl compounds, TSNAs, heavy metals, and glycols. This study analyzed the 2015-2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) and the main findings are:
  • The prevalence of secondhand aerosol exposure significantly increased from 25.6% in 2017 to 33.2% in 2018 (p<.001) after being stable during 2015 and 2017 (25.2% vs. 25.6%, p>0.05). The increase of SHA exposure from 2017 to 2018 was observed across socio-demographic groups.
  • Among never tobacco users in 2018 NYTS, students who reported secondhand aerosol exposure (vs. no) had higher odds of susceptibility to use e-cigarettes (38.8% vs. 21.0%) and cigarettes (30.7% vs. 21.2%) and higher odds of reporting exposure to e-cigarette marketing.
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Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, Pediatrics / 20.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hongying (Daisy) Dai, PhD Associate Professor Department of Biostatistics | College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: E-cigarette use increased significantly from 2017 to 2019 among U.S. adolescents, and marijuana and other substances besides can be used in e-cigarettes. Meanwhile, restrictions on marijuana use have been relaxing and social acceptability of marijuana use is shifting among youth. This study analyzed 38,061 middle and high school students from the 2017 and 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey.  (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Smoking, Tobacco / 23.10.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Andrea Villanti, PhD, MPH Associate Professor Department of Psychiatry Vermont Center on Behavior and Health University of Vermont  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our earlier work documented a significant association between first use of a flavored tobacco product and current tobacco use (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5522636/) in a cross-sectional sample. The goal of this study was to examine whether there was a prospective relationship between first use of a flavored tobacco product and subsequent use of that product in longitudinal data..  (more…)
Author Interviews, Environmental Risks, JAMA, Smoking / 17.09.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sairam Jabba, Ph.D Senior Research Associate Department of Anesthesiology Duke University Durham, NC 27710 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Pulegone is a potential carcinogen contained in several mint oils. Due to its carcinogenic properties, FDA banned pulegone last year as a food additive. Previous chemical analytical studies from CDC have demonstrated that several mint/menthol-flavored e-cigarette liquids and snuff tobacco products contain pulegone in significant amounts. FDA currently does not regulate pulegone in e-cigarettes and snuff products and the health risk associated with it for the users is not well understood.  (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, Cannabis, Pediatrics, Smoking, Tobacco, Tobacco Research / 30.04.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joan S. Tucker, Ph.D. Senior Behavioral Scientist RAND Corporation Santa Monica, CA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?   Response: In light of young adults’ expanding access to cannabis through legalization for recreational use, there has been growing interest in the co-use of cannabis with tobacco/nicotine products.  Although existing data show that young adults who use cannabis products also tend to use tobacco/nicotine products, little is known about how these products are typically used together. Existing research on co-use has mostly focused on combustible products, not accounting for the recent proliferation in cannabis and tobacco/nicotine product types and methods of use (e.g., vaping). Further, not much is known about whether there are important differences between types of co-use (e.g., using both products on the same occasion, one right after another, but not mixing them vs. using both products by mixing them in the same delivery device) in terms of heaviness of use, consequences from use, or associations with young adult functioning. This study was designed as an important first step toward understanding cannabis and tobacco/nicotine co-use behavior among young adults and addressing these gaps in the research literature. (more…)
Author Interviews, NEJM, Pediatrics, Smoking, Tobacco, Tobacco Research, University of Michigan / 30.12.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Richard Miech Ph.D Professor Principal Investigator, Monitoring the Future Institute for Social Research University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Every year Monitoring the Future conducts a survey to examine trends in adolescent substance use.  We draw a random sample of schools from a list of all schools in the United States and conduct our survey in ~400 schools.  Our survey is representative of U.S. 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students.  In other words, our results are what you would find if you surveyed every single 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in the United States, within the bounds of a small sampling error of a few percentage points. An increase in vaping is the big news for 2018.  In 10th and 12th grade the increase in nicotine vaping was the largest we've ever seen for any substance in the past 43 years.  As a result of this increase in nicotine vaping, overall use of nicotine increased as well, which suggests that vaping is drawing youth into nicotine use.  We also saw a significant increase in marijuana vaping. (more…)
Author Interviews, Johns Hopkins, Smoking, Tobacco, Tobacco Research / 11.10.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: "Electronic Cigarette/E-Cigs/E-Cigarettes" by Chris F is licensed under CC BY 2.0Mohammadhassan (Hassan) Mirbolouk, MD American Heart Association Tobacco Regulation Center (A-TRAC) Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, MD 21224. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: E-cigarettes were introduced first in US market as a less harmful method of nicotine delivery which potentially would help smokers to have a less harmful option. However, overtime e-cigarette found its niche of consumers in the younger/tobacco naïve population. Our study is amongst the first studies that describes those who use e-cigarette without any history of combustible-cigarette smoking.  (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Smoking, Tobacco Research / 16.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “E-Cigarette/Electronic Cigarette/E-Cigs/E-Liquid/Vaping” by Vaping360 is licensed under CC BY 2.0Wei Bao, MD, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Although the health effects of e-cigarettes remains unclear, e-cigarettes have been marketed as an approach for smoking cessation. Previous studies have reported an increase in e-cigarette use in US people since 2010. The current study showed that from 2014 to 2016, there was an increase in ever use of e-cigarettes but decline in current use of e-cigarettes.  (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, Cannabis, NIH, Pediatrics, Smoking / 17.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Checking your phone and vaping as you do” by Alper Çu?un is licensed under CC BY 2.0Richard Allen Miech, PhD Research Professor, Survey Research Center Institute for Social Research University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Monitoring the Future conducts annual, nationally-representative surveys of ~45,000 adolescents every year to assess trends in substance use. We track which drugs are gaining traction among adolescents and which are falling out of favor. The survey draws separate, nationally-representative samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students from about 400 total schools every year. Once a recruited school agrees to participate, a field interviewer travels to the school to administer the paper-and-pencil survey, typically in classrooms. The project is funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and is carried out by the University of Michigan. More details on the project's survey design and survey procedures can be found in chapter 3 here: http://monitoringthefutu re.org/pubs/monographs/mtf- vol1_2016.pdf (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Smoking, Tobacco Research / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Richard Miech Institute for Social Research University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The main finding of this study is that teen vaping predicts future smoking.  We surveyed a nationally-representative sample of 12th graders in 2014 and then re-surveyed them a year later.  We found:
  • Among teens who had never smoked at baseline, those who vaped were more than four times more likely to have smoked a year later than those who didn't vape
  • Among teens who were former smokers at baseline, those who vaped were more than twice as likely to have smoked a year later than those who didn't vape
  • Among teens who were current smokers at baseline, smoking levels a the one-year followup were the same for vapers and non-vapers.
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