News by Subject Social & Behavior

Smokers who regularly spend time with vapers (people who use e-cigarettes) are more likely to try quitting smoking, according to a new study carried out by UCL. The study, published today in BMC Medicine and funded by Cancer Research UK, found that smokers who were regularly exposed to vapers (as opposed to other smokers) were around 20 percent more likely to have reported both a high current motivation to quit and made a recent quit attempt.

Pregnant women are more likely to smoke if they live in an area in which tobacco is widely sold, research has shown.

Up to one-third of female smokers with Medicaid deny tobacco use during pregnancy. A new study finds that, despite reservations, low-income patients have a favorable view of using urine testing, with consent, to promote smoking cessation during pregnancy.

Integrating 'performance coaching' into the design and delivery of multi-component tobacco treatment interventions significantly increases rates of tobacco dependence treatment by primary care clinicians.

Annals of Family Medicine is a peer-reviewed, indexed research journal that provides a cross-disciplinary forum for new, evidence-based information affecting the primary care disciplines.

In an Acta Ophthalmologica analysis of 11 relevant articles, maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with a 46 percent increased risk that offspring will develop strabismus -- one of the most prevalent eye-related diseases among children. Maternal smoking of 10 cigarettes per day during pregnancy was linked with a 79 percent increased risk of strabismus in offspring.

E-cigarettes don't mitigate the use of combustible cigarettes among teens.

Twenty-nine per cent of health professionals would not recommend e-cigarettes to cancer patients who already smoke, according to research presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. While e-cigarettes may pose some health risks, evidence suggests they are much less harmful than smoking. Health bodies have given support for the use of e-cigarettes as a less harmful alternative.

Even as more and more American quit smoking cigarettes, individuals with serious psychological distress (SPD) are much less likely to extinguish their habit. A new study by scientists at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and The City University of New York found that individuals with mental health problems quit cigarettes at half the rate of those without psychological distress.