US smoking behavior is undergoing dramatic change: According to BRFSS, 25% of all adult smokers are now intermittent smokers (ITS) who do not smoke daily - an increase of 40% over 5 years (1996-2001). Understanding ITS is important for several reasons: ITS smoking patterns challenge current models of smoking behavior, ITS smokers incur substantial health risk, some ITS smokers have trouble quitting, and we lack knowledge of how to intervene in ITS. Estimates suggest that ITS is growing and will continue to grow, becoming a prominent smoking pattern that theory and interventions must be able to address. Although epidemiological surveys have characterized the demographics of ITS, the field lacks substantive information about ITS: why they smoke;how they smoke, and when they smoke. It is essential to fill these gaps in knowledge to more fully understand factors that control smoking behavior, to refine theories of nicotine dependence and smoking, and to develop more precisely directed interventions that will assist this growing segment of the smoking population. To fill these gaps, we propose an intensive case-control study contrasting 300 ITS and 300 daily smokers (DS) recruited from the community via random-digit dialing. We hypothesize that stimulus control - the association of smoking to particular stimulus contexts - is a key distinguishing feature of ITS compared to DS. We propose to study stimulus control in ITS and DS in two ways: (1) In a naturalistic field study, subjects will track the stimuli associated with smoking and non-smoking occasions for two weeks using electronic diaries and Ecological Momentary Assessment methods. (2) In a randomized laboratory experiment using cue-exposure methods, we will assess craving responses to a panel of cues (e.g., negative affect, positive affect, alcohol). Additional analyses will compare groups on smoking history and dependence and use baseline data to predict prospectively ITS transitions to daily smoking and to abstinence over a follow-up of up to 4 years. Thus, our study focuses on individual differences in stimulus control of smoking as an important process that may be associated with patterns of regular and addictive smoking. These studies have the potential to shed some much needed light on ITS as an important emerging smoking pattern, inform theories of nicotine dependence, and suggest directions for intervention both with ITS and with regular daily smokers.
| Jahnel, Tina; Ferguson, Stuart G; Shiffman, Saul et al. (2018) Momentary smoking context as a mediator of the relationship between SES and smoking. Addict Behav 83:136-141 |
| Cheng, Jessica; Shiffman, Saul; King, Wendy et al. (2018) Interaction between ethnicity and smoker type with dependence: A comparison of daily and intermittent African American and Caucasian smokers. Psychol Addict Behav 32:410-414 |
| Dunbar, Michael S; Shiffman, Saul; Chandra, Siddharth (2018) Exposure to workplace smoking bans and continuity of daily smoking patterns on workdays and weekends. Addict Behav 80:53-58 |
| Shiffman, Saul; Terhorst, Lauren (2017) Intermittent and daily smokers' subjective responses to smoking. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 234:2911-2917 |
| Ferguson, Stuart G; Shiffman, Saul; Dunbar, Michael et al. (2016) Higher stimulus control is associated with less cigarette intake in daily smokers. Psychol Addict Behav 30:229-37 |
| Blake, Grant A; Ferguson, Stuart G; Palmer, Matthew A et al. (2016) Development and psychometric properties of the Smoking Restraint Questionnaire. Psychol Addict Behav 30:238-45 |
| Dumortier, Antoine; Beckjord, Ellen; Shiffman, Saul et al. (2016) Classifying smoking urges via machine learning. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 137:203-213 |
| Wray, Jennifer M; Gray, Kevin M; McClure, Erin A et al. (2015) Gender differences in responses to cues presented in the natural environment of cigarette smokers. Nicotine Tob Res 17:438-42 |
| Shiffman, Saul; Dunbar, Michael S; Kirchner, Thomas R et al. (2015) Cue reactivity in converted and native intermittent smokers. Nicotine Tob Res 17:119-23 |
| Shiffman, Saul; Dunbar, Michael S; Tindle, Hilary A et al. (2015) Nondaily smokers' experience of craving on days they do not smoke. J Abnorm Psychol 124:648-59 |
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