E-cigarettes, Hookah Pens and Vapes: Adolescent and Young Adult Perceptions of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: Table 1.

Most studies have assessed use of “e-cigarettes” or “electronic cigarettes,” potentially excluding new electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), such as e-hookahs and vape pens. Little is known about how adolescents and young adults perceive ENDS and if their perceptions vary by sub-type. We explored ENDS perceptions among these populations

Adolescent and Young Adult Perceptions of Hookah and Little Cigars/Cigarillos: Implications for Risk Messages

Use of hookah and little cigars/cigarillos (LCCs) is high among adolescents and young adults. Although these products have health effects similar to cigarettes, adolescents and young adults believe them to be safer. This study examined adolescent and young adult perceptions of hookah and LCCs to develop risk messages aimed at discouraging use among users and at-risk nonusers. Ten focus groups with 77 adolescents and young adults were conducted to explore their perceptions about the perceived risks and benefits of hookah and LCC use. Participants were users of other (non-cigarette) tobacco products (n=47) and susceptible nonusers (n=30). Transcripts were coded for emergent themes on participants’ perceptions of hookah and LCCs. Participants did not perceive health effects associated with hookah and LCC use to be serious or likely to happen given their infrequency of use and perceptions that they are less harmful than cigarettes. Participants generally had positive associations with smoking hookah and LCCs for several reasons, including that they are used in social gatherings, come in various flavors, and can be used to perform smoke tricks. Because adolescents and young adults underestimate and discount the long-term risks associated with hookah and LCC use, effective messages may be those that focus on the acute/immediate health and cosmetic effects

Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Knowledge and Beliefs About Constituents in Novel Tobacco Products

Novel tobacco products, such as little cigars, cigarillos, hookah, and e-cigarettes, and their smoke or aerosol contain chemicals which the FDA has determined to be Harmful or Potentially Harmful Constituents. We explored adolescents’ and young adults’ knowledge and beliefs about constituents in novel tobacco products and their smoke or aerosol, in order to inform risk communication messages

E-cigarettes, Hookah Pens and Vapes: Adolescent and Young Adult Perceptions of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: Table 1.

Most studies have assessed use of “e-cigarettes” or “electronic cigarettes,” potentially excluding new electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), such as e-hookahs and vape pens. Little is known about how adolescents and young adults perceive ENDS and if their perceptions vary by sub-type. We explored ENDS perceptions among these populations

What Do Adolescents and Young Adults Think a Cigarillo Is? Implications for Health Communication

Cigarillo use has increased among adolescents and young adults and has remained high. Public education efforts are needed to communicate with these populations about cigarillo use risks, but little is known about the implications of using the term “cigarillo” in such efforts. The study goal was to assess adolescent and young adult perceptions of the term “cigarillo”. We conducted a nationally representative online survey of 3517 adolescents and young adults (ages 13–25). We asked participants “what is a cigarillo?” with several response options. Participants were 49.6% female, 69.8% white, 5.2% reported past 30-day cigarillo use, and 11.6% reported lifetime cigarillo use. The most common response to the question “what is a cigarillo” was “I don’t know” (51% of participants), followed by “a thinner and smaller version of a traditional cigar” (30.1% of participants), which was chosen by 19.4% of adolescents and 36.8% of young adults. Among past 30-day cigarillo users, the most common response was “I don’t know” (54.9%) followed by “a thinner and smaller version of a traditional cigar” (45.1%). Cigarillo users were more likely to select the “a thinner and smaller version of a traditional cigar” response than nonusers. Findings suggest that many adolescents and young adults have varied understandings of the term “cigarillo”. Researchers and practitioners need to ensure that terminology used in health communication campaigns is clearly understood by the target audience to maximize effectiveness

Automated generation of comparator patients in the electronic medical record

Abstract Background Well‐designed randomized trials provide high‐quality clinical evidence but are not always feasible or ethical. In their absence, the electronic medical record (EMR) presents a platform to conduct comparative effectiveness research, central to the emerging academic learning health system (aLHS) model. A barrier to realizing this vision is the lack of a process to efficiently generate a reference comparison group for each patient. Objective To test a multi‐step process for the selection of comparators in the EMR. Materials and Methods We conducted a mixed‐methods study within a large aLHS in North Carolina. We (1) created a list of 35 candidate variables; (2) surveyed 270 researchers to assess the importance of candidate variables; and (3) built consensus rankings around survey‐identified variables (ie, importance scores >7) across two panels of 7–8 clinical research experts. Prioritized algorithm inputs were collected from the EMR and applied using a greedy matching technique. Feasibility was measured as the percentage of patients with 100 matched comparators and performance was measured via computational time and Euclidean distance. Results Nine variables were selected: age, sex, race, ethnicity, body mass index, insurance status, smoking status, Charlson Comorbidity Index, and neighborhood percentage in poverty. The final process successfully generated 100 matched comparators for each of 1.8 million candidate patients, executed in less than 100 min for the majority of strata, and had average Euclidean distance 0.043. Conclusion EMR‐derived matching is feasible to implement across a diverse patient population and can provide a reproducible, efficient source of comparator data for observational studies, with additional testing in clinical research applications needed