Smoking among Young Rural to Urban Migrant Women in China: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Rural-to-urban migrant women may be vulnerable to smoking initiation as they are newly exposed to risk factors in the urban environment. We sought to identify correlates of smoking among rural-to-urban migrant women in China.A cross-sectional survey of rural-to-urban migrant women working in restaurants and hotels (RHW) and those working as commercial sex workers (CSW) was conducted in ten provincial capital cities in China. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to identify correlates of smoking. We enrolled 2229 rural-to-urban migrant women (1697 RHWs aged 18–24 years and 532 CSWs aged 18–30 years). Of these, 18.4% RHWs and 58.3% CSWs reported ever tried smoking and 3.2% RHWs and 41.9% CSWs reported current smoking. Participants who first tried smoking after moving to the city were more likely to be current smokers compared to participants who first tried smoking before moving to the city (25.3% vs. 13.8% among RHWs, p = 0.02; 83.6% vs. 58.6% among CSWs, p = <0.01). Adjusting for other factors, “tried female cigarette brands” had the strongest association with current smoking (OR 5.69, 95%CI 3.44 to 9.41) among participants who had ever tried smoking.Exposure to female cigarette brands may increase the susceptibility to smoking among rural-to-urban migrant women. Smoke-free policies and increased taxes may be effective in preventing rural-to-urban migrant women from smoking initiation

Review of cigarette smoking and tuberculosis in China: intervention is needed for smoking cessation among tuberculosis patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As a risk factor of tuberculosis (TB), tobacco smoking has increased substantially over the past three decades, especially in developing countries. However, the association between smoking and TB, which has been shown to exist in different studies with different ethnic background, has not yet received sufficient attention in terms of TB care standards and research in China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An observational study was conducted in two rural areas of China. A total of 613 TB patients frequency matched with 1226 controls were interviewed by using a structured questionnaire. The associations between cigarette smoking and risk of TB were estimated by computing odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) from logistic regression model. Patients' smoking behavior and patterns of smoking cessation were followed after TB diagnosis. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was applied to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) in analyzing the risk factors for smoking relapse. The Kaplan-Meier estimate was computed to plot the ability of smoking-free after cessation among different groups, with the Log-rank test being used to compare the difference.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The proportion of cigarette smoking was 54.6% in TB cases, which was significantly higher than that in controls (45.1%) with adjusted OR of 1.93(95% CI: 1.51–2.48). Though 54.9% smokers stopped smoking after being diagnosed with TB, more than 18% relapsed during the follow-up period. The proportion of relapse was higher within 6–9 months (6%) and 12–15 months (11%) after cessation. In the Cox regression estimates adjusted for age and gender, compared with those highly educated and previously treated patients, the hazard ratios of smoking relapse were 3.48(95% CI: 1.28–9.47) for less educated (< 6 years) and 4.30(95% CI: 1.01–18.30) for newly treated patients, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Cigarette smoking is associated with TB in the Chinese. Interventions of smoking cessation are recommended to be included in the current TB control practice.</p

Post epidemic giardiasis and gastrointestinal symptoms among preschool children in Bergen, Norway. A cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A surprisingly low number of children became ill with giardiasis during the large waterborne outbreak of <it>Giardia lamblia </it>in Bergen, Norway during autumn 2004. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of giardiasis among exposed children one year after an outbreak and compare faecal carriage of <it>Giardia </it>and abdominal symptoms among exposed versus unexposed children one year after the epidemic.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Children between 1 and 6 years old were recruited from the local health care centres in Bergen municipality in the period between June 2005 and January 2006. One faecal sample per child was collected and examined for presence of <it>Giardia </it>with a rapid immunoassay antigen test, and parents were asked to answer a questionnaire. A total of 513 children participated, 378 in the group exposed to contaminated water, and 135 in the in the group not exposed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the exposed group eleven children had been treated for giardiasis during the epidemic and none in the unexposed group. <it>Giardia </it>positive faecal tests were found in six children, all in the exposed group, but the difference between the groups did not reach statistical significance. All six <it>Giardia </it>positive children were asymptomatic. No differences were found between the groups regarding demographic data, nausea, vomiting, different odour from stools and eructation. However, the reported scores of abdominal symptoms (diarrhoea, bloating and stomach ache) during the last year were higher in the exposed group than in the unexposed group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A low prevalence of asymptomatic <it>Giardia </it>infection (1.7%) was found among exposed children around one year after the epidemic (1.2% overall prevalence in the study). In the present setting, pre-school children were therefore unlikely to be an important reservoir for continued transmission in the general population.</p

Occupational correlates of smoking among urban transit operators: A prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Workers in blue-collar and service occupations smoke at higher rates than workers in white-collar and professional occupations. Occupational stress may explain some of the occupational class differences in smoking and quitting behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of occupational factors to smoking behavior over a ten year period among a multiethnic cohort of urban transit operators, while accounting for demographic factors and alcohol.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The sample consists of 654 San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) transit operators who participated in two occupational health studies and biennial medical examinations during 1983–85 and 1993–95. Workers who had initiated, increased, or maintained their smoking over the ten year period were compared to workers who remained non-smokers. Occupational factors included self-rated frequency of job problems (e.g., difficulties with equipment, passengers, traffic), job burnout (i.e., the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory), time needed to unwind after work, and years employed as a transit operator. A series of logistic regression models were developed to estimate the contribution of occupational factors to smoking behavior over time.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Approximately 35% of the workers increased, initiated, or maintained their smoking over the ten-year period. Frequency of job problems was significantly associated with likelihood of smoking increase, initiation, or maintenance (OR = 1.30; 95% CI 1.09, 1.55). Black operators were significantly more likely to have smoked over the ten-year period compared to operators in other racial/ethnic groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Understanding the role of work-related stress vis-à-vis smoking behavior is of critical importance for crafting workplace smoking prevention and cessation interventions that are applicable to blue-collar work settings, and for developing policies that mitigate occupational stress.</p

Genomic analysis of Pseudomonas putida: genes in a genome island are crucial for nicotine degradation

Nicotine is an important chemical compound in nature that has been regarded as an environmental toxicant causing various preventable diseases. Several bacterial species are adapted to decompose this heterocyclic compound, including Pseudomonas and Arthrobacter. Pseudomonas putida S16 is a bacterium that degrades nicotine through the pyrrolidine pathway, similar to that present in animals. The corresponding late steps of the nicotine degradation pathway in P. putida S16 was first proposed and demonstrated to be from 2,5-dihydroxy-pyridine through the intermediates N-formylmaleamic acid, maleamic acid, maleic acid, and fumaric acid. Genomics of strain S16 revealed that genes located in the largest genome island play a major role in nicotine degradation and may originate from other strains, as suggested by the constructed phylogenetic tree and the results of comparative genomic analysis. The deletion of gene hpo showed that this gene is essential for nicotine degradation. This study defines the mechanism of nicotine degradation

Compromise or Capitulation? US Food and Drug Administration Jurisdiction Over Tobacco Products

Stanton Glantz and colleagues critique the recent policy decision in the United States to grant the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products, a decision that has broad but not unanimous support among health care professionals

The SCIDOTS Project: Evidence of benefits of an integrated tobacco cessation intervention in tuberculosis care on treatment outcomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is substantial evidence to support the association between tuberculosis (TB) and tobacco smoking and that the smoking-related immunological abnormalities in TB are reversible within six weeks of cessation. Therefore, connecting TB and tobacco cessation interventions may produce significant benefits and positively impact TB treatment outcomes. However, no study has extensively documented the evidence of benefits of such integration. SCIDOTS Project is a study from the context of a developing nation aimed to determine this.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An integrated TB-tobacco intervention was provided by trained TB directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS) providers at five chest clinics in Malaysia. The study was a prospective non-randomized controlled intervention using quasi-experimental design. Using Transtheoretical Model approach, 120 eligible participants who were current smokers at the time of TB diagnosis were assigned to either of two treatment groups: conventional TB DOTS plus smoking cessation intervention (integrated intervention or SCIDOTS group) or conventional TB DOTS alone (comparison or DOTS group). At baseline, newly diagnosed TB patients considering quitting smoking within the next 30 days were placed in the integrated intervention group, while those who were contemplating quitting were assigned to the comparison group. Eleven sessions of individualized cognitive behavioral therapy with or without nicotine replacement therapy were provided to each participant in the integrated intervention group. The impacts of the novel approach on biochemically validated smoking cessation and TB treatment outcomes were measured periodically as appropriate.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A linear effect on both 7-day point prevalence abstinence and continuous abstinence was observed over time in the intervention group. At the end of 6 months, patients who received the integrated intervention had significantly higher rate of success in quitting smoking when compared with those who received the conventional TB treatment alone (77.5% vs. 8.7%; p < 0.001). Furthermore, at the end of TB treatment (6 months or later), there were significantly higher rates of treatment default (15.2% vs. 2.5%; p = 0.019) and treatment failure (6.5% vs. 0%; p = 0.019) in the DOTS group than in the SCIDOTS group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study provides evidence that connecting TB-tobacco treatment strategy is significant among TB patients who are smokers. The findings suggest that the integrated approach may be beneficial and confer advantages on short-term outcomes and possibly on future lung health of TB patients who quit smoking. This study may have important implications on health policy and clinical practice related to TB management among tobacco users.</p

The Global Research Neglect of Unassisted Smoking Cessation: Causes and Consequences

Simon Chapman and Ross MacKenzie review the evidence and argue that health promotion messages should emphasize that the most successful method used by most ex-smokers is unassisted cessation

Chemoreception Regulates Chemical Access to Mouse Vomeronasal Organ: Role of Solitary Chemosensory Cells

Controlling stimulus access to sensory organs allows animals to optimize sensory reception and prevent damage. The vomeronasal organ (VNO) detects pheromones and other semiochemicals to regulate innate social and sexual behaviors. This semiochemical detection generally requires the VNO to draw in chemical fluids, such as bodily secretions, which are complex in composition and can be contaminated. Little is known about whether and how chemical constituents are monitored to regulate the fluid access to the VNO. Using transgenic mice and immunolabeling, we found that solitary chemosensory cells (SCCs) reside densely at the entrance duct of the VNO. In this region, most of the intraepithelial trigeminal fibers innervate the SCCs, indicating that SCCs relay sensory information onto the trigeminal fibers. These SCCs express transient receptor potential channel M5 (TRPM5) and the phospholipase C (PLC) β2 signaling pathway. Additionally, the SCCs express choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) for synthesizing and packaging acetylcholine, a potential transmitter. In intracellular Ca2+ imaging, the SCCs responded to various chemical stimuli including high concentrations of odorants and bitter compounds. The responses were suppressed significantly by a PLC inhibitor, suggesting involvement of the PLC pathway. Further, we developed a quantitative dye assay to show that the amount of stimulus fluid that entered the VNOs of behaving mice is inversely correlated to the concentration of odorous and bitter substances in the fluid. Genetic knockout and pharmacological inhibition of TRPM5 resulted in larger amounts of bitter compounds entering the VNOs. Our data uncovered that chemoreception of fluid constituents regulates chemical access to the VNO and plays an important role in limiting the access of non-specific irritating and harmful substances. Our results also provide new insight into the emerging role of SCCs in chemoreception and regulation of physiological actions