bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Is having an alcoholic father hazardous for children's physical health?
Authors: DOBKIN PATRICIA L. , TREMBLAY RICHARD E. , DESMARAIS‐GERVAIS LYSE , DEPELTEAU LOUISE 
Published: January 2006

AbstractFive hundred and ninety‐time French‐Canadian pre‐adolescent children for whom the alcoholic status of the parents was known were subdivided into eight groups, according to family structure (intact, non‐intact), alcoholic status of the father (alcoholic, non‐alcoholic) and gender of the target child (girl, boy). ANCOVAs were conducted (controlling for income, a factor which contributes to illness) for health‐related variables in order to test the hypothesis that children of alcoholic fathers have more physical health problems compared to children without alcoholic fathers. Data pertaining to use of medical services, serious and minor illnesses and pregnancy‐related events were analysed. It was found that overall, pre‐adolescent children of alcoholics were not more ill than children of non‐alcoholics. There were, however, some differences worthy of note. Children of alcoholics had significantly lower birthweights than the children of non‐alcoholics. Boys in non‐intact alcoholic families were of shorter stature than the other children. A three‐way interaction showed that daughters of alcoholics and sons of non‐alcoholics living in non‐intact families were more likely to have used psychologists' services, as were sons of alcoholics in intact families. The results were discussed in terms of the heterogeneity of alcoholic families as well as the need to identify subgroups of children of alcoholics who are at risk.
Unemployment and change of tobacco habits: a study of young people from 16 to 21 years of age
Authors: HAMMARSTRÖM ANNE , JANLERT URBAN 
Published: January 2006

AbstractIn a cohort study of 1080 pupils who were followed for 5 years from when they left compulsory school (from age 16 to age 21 years), smoking habits were found to correlate with unemployment among both boys and girls. Pupils who zuere smokers in school had a higher risk of becoming unemployed than non‐smokers. Irrespective of early smoking, smoking habits developed more unfavourably among unemployed young people than among those with no unemployment during the period studied. The odds ratio of being a smoker at the age of 21 years when unemployed more than 20 weeks during the observation period, compared with those without or with short unemployment, was 2.44 for men and 3.45 for women. When adjusted for the influence of socio‐economic background, education, economy and smoking habits at the start of the period, the odds ratio was 1.7 (95% CI 1.01 2.86) for men and 2.0 (1.13–3.53) for women. The adjusted odds ratio for increasing or starting smoking during the period was 1.5 (95% CI 0.89‐2.56) for men and 2.0 (1.18–3.35) for women. No significant correlation was found between snuffing and unemployment. Thus, it seems that unemployment is a risk factor for development of tobacco smoking in young people, especially among women.
Genetic and environmental contributions to smoking
Authors: TRUE WILLIAM R. , HEATH ANDREW C. , SCHERRER JEFFREY F. , WATERMAN BRIAN , GOLDBERG JACK , LIN NONG , EISEN SETH A. , LYONS MICHAEL J. , TSUANG MING T. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractWe estimate the magnitude of genetic and shared environmental contributions to risk of initiation and maintenance of smoking. Genetic models were fitted to data from 2 204 male‐male monozygotic and I 793 male‐male dizygotic twin pairs from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry who responded to smoking questions on a 1987 mail and telephone survey. The best fitting model allowed for both genetic and shared environmental effects on smoking initiation, accounting for 50% and 30% of the variance in risk, but allowed for only genetic effects, (accounting for 70% of the variance in risk), on persistence in smoking among those who had become regular smokers. This finding of a major genetic influence on smoking persistence confirms similar results from studies in Scandinavia and Australia. The role of heritable traits such as nicotine sensitivity should be addressed in smoking prevention and cessation efforts.
The social costs of alcohol abuse in New Zealand
Authors: DEVLIN NANCY J. , SCUFFHAM PAUL A. , BUNT LORNA J. 
Published: January 2006

Abstract Aims. This study updates and extends previous New Zealand research on the social costs of alcohol abuse. Design. This economic cost study used the human capital approach. Setting. New Zealand, 1991. Participants. The total New Zealand population. Measurements. The estimated costs of alcohol abuse for 1 year included direct and indirect costs. Costs such as lost production resulting from premature death and sickness, reduced working efficiency and excess unemployment comprised indirect costs. Direct costs included hospital costs, accident compensation payments, police and justice system costs. A range of social cost estimates was constructed based on various prevalence rates of alcohol abuse, discount rates for lost production and the excess unemployment rate. Findings. Using a range of assumptions regarding the proportion of each event attributable to alcohol, the sum of social costs ranged from $1045 million to $4005 million in 1991. The direct costs ranged from $341 million to $589 million, respectively. Conclusions. While providing an indication of the societal impact of alcohol abuse, these costs pertain to a relatively narrow range of alcohol‐related effects. The paper identifies a number of areas where further research is required.
Regional variations in deaths from volatile solvent abuse in Great Britain
Authors: ESMAIL A. , WARBURTON B. , BLAND J. M. , ANDERSON H. R. , RAMSEY J. 
Published: January 2006

Abstract Aims. To assess geographical variations in mortality and the relationship of socio‐economic correlates to deaths from volatile substance abuse (VSA) in Great Britain. Design. Analysis of the National Register of deaths from VSA by linking the addresses (postcode) of the deceased to census enumeration districts and hence wards and counties. Setting and participants. All 775 deaths in Great Britain listed in the national register between 1985–91. Population counts from the 1991 census were used as denominators. Measurement. The Poisson heterogeneity test was used to test the null hypothesis that all standardized mortality ratios were from the same population. The t‐test was used to compare differences in Townsend Deprivation scores between wards with and without VSA deaths. Multiple regression was used to assess the relationship between indices of deprivation and deaths from VSA. Findings. One‐third of all VSA deaths occurred in six regions of Great Britain which accounted for 17% of the at risk population. There was considerable variation in age standardized mortality ratios (ASMR) across regions. A ward level analysis indicated that wards with a VSA death had significantly higher levels of deprivation. The Townsend deprivation index, showed mean deprivation scores of 2.8 and 0.2, respectively, for wards with and without a registered death (p < 0.0001). Multiple regression at county/region level found that 45% of the variation in ASMR was explained by the components of the Townsend deprivation index. Conclusions. Factors associated with deprivation are important in VSA deaths and this should be taken into account in planning public health measures to prevent mortality.
Do work‐place smoking bans cause smokers to smoke “harder”? Results from a naturalistic observational study
Authors: CHAPMAN SIMON , HADDAD SUZY , SINDHUSAKE DOUNGKAMOL 
Published: January 2006

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate whether smokers outside buildings with work‐place smoking bans smoke “harder” than those smoking in social settings. An unobtrusive random observational study of smokers followed by structured interview was used, with 143 smokers taking smoking breaks outside their office buildings and 113 smokers in social settings. The main outcome measurements were number of puffs per cigarette and cigarette smoking duration. The mean number of puffs per cigarette for the office building group was 18.7% greater than that for the social settings group (10.7±3.2 vs. 8.7±2.7, t = 5.58, df= 253, p < 0.001); 74.8% of smokers outside offices took more than the mean number of puffs for the group compared to 42.5% of smokers in social settings (χ2 df 1 = 26.31, p < 0.0001). Mean cigarette smoking duration was 30.4% shorter for the work‐place group than the social settings group (3.9 ± 1.2 minutes vs. 5.6 ± 2.6 minutes). Of smokers outside offices, 55.2% had a cigarette smoking duration between 3 and 4.59 minutes, while 53.1% of smokers in social settings took ≥ 5 minutes to smoke the observed cigarette (χ2 df 2 = 31.55, p < 0.0001). Smokers who scored at the 75th percentile on the Fagerstrom Tolerance Scale took a mean 9.5 ±2.6 puffs per cigarette compared to 9.3 ± 2.7 puffs by those who scored in the 25th percentile on the scale (1 = 0.34, df= 145, p = 0.73). Regardless of degree of nicotine dependency, smokers leaving work‐stations to smoke outside buildings smoked their cigarettes nearly 19%“harder” than cigarettes smoked in social settings. The individual and public health benefits of reduced smoking frequency engendered by work‐place smoking bans may be lessened by policies which allow smokers to take smoking breaks.
Sir Austin Bradford Hill: medical statistics and the quantitative approach to prevention of disease
Authors: WILKINSON LISE 
Published: January 2006

AbstractSir Austin Bradford Hill (1897‐1991), son of a prominent medical physiologist, was destined for the study of medicine when World War I intervened. He chose to enlist as a pilot in the Royal Navy Air Service. Having contracted tuberculosis on his way to the Dardanelles, Hill was ‘sent home to die’. In spite of the odds he recovered; but with no chance of working in physically taxing fields such as medicine or science. Advised and encouraged by Major Greenwood, he carved out for himself a career in medical statistics, first at the Medical Research Council and subsequently at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where his inspired leaching helped to shape the development of medical research in the second half of the twentieth century. He is particularly remembered for the way he made medical statistics an essential pan of modem epidemiology, a new phase in an epidemiology concerned with chronic as well as with infectious diseases. At the same time, he introduced randomization where therapies—beginning with streptomycin in tuberculosis—could be evaluated in large‐scale clinical trials. Perhaps his best known achievement is his design of the smoking and lung cancer trials, carried out with Richard Doll who later extended—and still extends—the trials which so convincingly have linked addiction to tobacco to patients' later problems with cancers and with coronary heart disease.
Use of the Nottingham Health Profile for measuring health status of patients in methadone maintenance treatment
Authors: TORRENS MARTA , SAN LUIS , MARTINEZ ALBA , CASTILLO CLAUDIO , DOMINGO‐SALVANY ANTONIA , ALONSO JORDI 
Published: January 2006

AbstractThis study was conducted to assess changes in health‐related quality of life over a 3‐year follow‐up period in a cohort of 135 opioid dependent patients using the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) questionnaire. Data obtained at 12 months from 80 patients retained in the programme are presented. In summary, opioid addicts in a methadone maintenance programme for a 12‐month period experienced an early and substantial improvement in health‐related quality of life. The use of the NHP questionnaire to monitor changes in the subjective health of opioid‐dependent patients over time provides new insights in the assessment of treatment effectiveness of methadone maintenance programmes.
Nicotine withdrawal in women
Authors: MADDEN PAMELA A. F. , BUCHOLZ KATHLEEN K. , DINWIDDIE STEVEN H. , SLUTSKE WENDY S. , BIERUT LAURA J. , STATHAM DIXIE J. , DUNNE MICHAEL P. , MARTIN NICHOLAS G. , HEATH ANDREW C. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractAssociations between self‐report symptom profiles for nicotine withdrawal, personality (TPQ, EPQ‐R), life‐time history of psychopathology and smoking history were examined in data obtained from 553 female adult Australian twins (246 regular smokers), aged 32‐48 years, who had participated in a telephone interview survey that included life‐time assessments of smoking history, nicotine dependence and symptoms of withdrawal. Two hundred and two respondents were from high‐risk pairs where either the respondent or the respondent's co‐twin had reported a life‐time history of alcohol dependence; 351 were from control pairs. Latent class analysis was used to identify subtypes (‘classes’) of smokers reporting similar withdrawal symptom profiles. Three major classes were identified which appeared to represent a continuum from mild to severe nicotine withdrawal. Smokers from the severe withdrawal class were best characterized by hands shaking and by the prominence of depressive features. There mere marked increases in life‐time alcohol dependence rates as a function of severity class. In contrast, significantly elevated rates of major depression, conduct disorder and anxiety disorder were observed only among smokers from the most severe withdrawal class. Neuroticism was the only personality factor strongly associated with the development of withdrawal symptoms.
Smoking behaviour and personality: a population‐based study in Japan
Authors: ARAI YUMIKO , HOSOKAWA TORU , FUKAO AKIRA , IZUMI YOKO , HISAMICHI SHIGERU 
Published: January 2006

Abstract Aims. The aim of our study was to determine whether the previously reported findings also apply to a general population in Japan and whether, among current smokers, such personality characteristics can be correlated with the age they stoned to smoke and their present daily consumption of cigarettes. Design. Cross‐sectional survey. Setting. Miyagi prefecture, in northern Japan. Participants. 20 538 residents in Miyagi, aged 40–64 years. Measurement. A self‐administered questionnaire involving smoking status (current, ex‐ and non‐smokers) and patterns and the Japanese version of the short‐form Eysenck Personality Questionnaire‐Revised (EPQ‐R). Findings. (I) Current and ex‐smokers were higher on Extraversion and Psychoticism than non‐smokers for both genders. (2) Heavy smokers were higher on Psychoticism than light smokers and those who started to smoke prior to the legally permitted age were higher on Psychoticism than those who did not. Conclusions. (1) Our study confirmed that the findings which had been previously reported in selected samples in western countries also apply to a general population in Japan; (2) current smokers were found to be heterogeneous in terms of Psychoticism when the age they started to smoke and their present daily consumption of cigarettes were taken into account.
Community prevention and alcohol retail access
Authors: REYNOLDS ROBERT I. , HOLDER HAROLD D. , GRUENEWALD PAUL J. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractThis paper describes the design, rationale and implementation of the Alcohol Access Component within the Community Trials Project of the Prevention Research Center. The Alcohol Access Component was to reduce the concentration or density of alcohol outlets in each experimental community by a combination of local zoning and land‐use planning approaches which was an effect to occur over several years. During the time of this trial, local regulations of alcohol outlets and public sites for drinking were changed in all three experimental communities. The amount of such alcohol policy change exceeded the goals for this component.
Solitary drinking: a risk factor for alcohol‐related problems?
Authors: BOURGAULT CHANTAL , DEMERS ANDRÉE 
Published: January 2006

AbstractThis paper investigates whether solitary drinking is a risk factor for alcohol‐related problems using data from a general population of drinkers in Montreal, Canada. Three indicators of solitary drinking mere used: (1) having had a drink alone; (2) frequency of solitary drinking; and (3) having had five drinks or more in a solitary setting. Among the 2015 respondent drinkers of a telephone survey, 31% reported drinking alone, of whom 27% did so more than once a week, and 17% had had five drinks or more alone at least once. Problems with family or social relationships, physical health, work, budget, physical security and happiness or view of life, self‐reported as being alcohol‐related, were measured by seven binary items. Strong positive associations were found at the univariate level between overall alcohol‐related problems and both solitary drinking and having had five or more drinks alone, whereas frequency of solitary drinking had no effect. Only the relationship with having five or more drinks alone remained statistically significant in logistic regressions controlling for potential confounders. No evidence mas found that solitary drinking per se is a risk factor for alcohol‐related problems unless large quantities of alcohol are involved.
Alcohol interventions: do the best things come in small packages?
Authors: DRUMMOND D. COLIN 
Published: January 2006

AbstractSeveral extensive reviews have highlighted the effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions. The same reviews mere pessimistic about the role of more intensive, specialist treatments. It is argued here that the research evidence should be interpreted with caution. There are problems of generalizability of the research, and studies focusing on brief interventions in the primary health care field are largely not comparable with clinical trials conducted in the specialist setting. The efficacy of brief interventions as a routine mass intervention approach has been exaggerated. Even after extensive research, little is known of the effective ingredients and the most effective methods of delivery. Reviews of brief interventions have been overly selective, and meta analysis in this area is problematic. It is argued that such reviews lead to overgeneralization and turn attention away from promising specialist treatment approaches. More research is needed into identifying the target group most likely to benefit from brief interventions, cost effectiveness, and into shared care and stepped care approaches, before embarking on a major shift in treatment policy towards brief interventions.
Substance abuse and homelessness: social selection or social adaptation?
Authors: JOHNSON TIMOTHY P. , FREELS SALLY A. , PARSONS JENNIFER A. , VANGEEST JONATHAN B. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractAlthough substance abuse has for many years been documented as a serious problem among homeless populations, there is as yet no clear understanding of the nature of the relationship between substance abuse and homelessness. We evaluate alternative social selection and social adaptation models of this process. Using data from a random probability sample, the substance abuse and homeless experiences of 303 homeless people and people at risk of homelessness in Cook County, Illinois, were investigated. Proportional hazards regression models were employed to assess both social selection and social adaptation models. Drug but not alcohol abuse was associated with first homeless episode. Prior homeless experiences were found to be predictive of first symptoms of both alcohol and drug abuse. Other variables, including the availability of social and economic resources, were also associated with each of these outcomes. Models of both selection and adaptation processes are necessary to account for the association between homelessness and substance abuse, indicating that a multi‐directional model is more appropriate. In addition findings suggest that, in recent years, drugs may have displaced alcohol as an important precursor of homelessness for many individuals.
A longitudinal study of social, psychological and behavioural factors associated with drunken driving and public drunkenness
Authors: KARLSSON GUNILLA , ROMELSjO ANDERS 
Published: January 2006

AbstractStudies on psychosocial conditions in drunken drivers have generally been cross‐sectional and based on rather small selected samples. The objective of this study was to analyse, in a longitudinal perspective, the relationship, in young males, between social and psychological factors and indicators of alcohol abuse on one hand and the risk of subsequent drunken driving and public drunkenness on the other hand, in order to identify similarities and differences in risk factor patterns. Questionnaire information from 8122 military conscripts in 1969/70 was linked to data on drunken driving and public drunkenness for 495 males with offences registered up to 1977. Logistic regression analysis showed that the relative risk (RR) for high alcohol consumption, smoking, use of narcotics and sniffing of solvents had a statistically significant association to subsequent drunken driving and public drunkenness in univariate analyses. In multivariate logistic analyses, RR remained increased for those with fathers belonging to social class II and especially so for those coming from social class III. Smoking (RR 3.3, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.6–6.8) was significantly increased in drunken drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.15% or more at apprehension, as was truancy or contact with police or juvenile authorities in drunken drivers with a BAC of 0.05–0.15%, and illicit drug use, intoxication drinking, contact with police or juvenile authorities and hangover with public drunkenness. Thus, vie found that early social and behavioural factors, substance abuse and risky use of alcohol were predictors for both drunken driving and public drunkenness, with no marked differences in risk factor patterns.
Adult smokers who do not smoke daily
Authors: GILPIN ELIZABETH , GAVIN SHIRLEY W. , PIERCE JOHN P. 
Published: January 2006

AbstractAlmost 20% of Californian smokers do not smoke daily. Although occasional (non‐daily) smoking occurs during uptake, a liable pattern of occasional smoking may imply a milder level of nicotine addiction. We use a longitudinal population sample of smokers interviewed in both 1990 and 1992 to evaluate the stability of occasional smoking. Further, we use 1992 data, including smokers only interviewed in 1992, to compare occasional smokers who have (ever‐daily) and have not (never‐daily) smoked daily for at least 6 months, and contrast them to daily smokers for key variables associated with addiction. All our analyses exclude uptake smokers. Two‐thirds of never‐daily occasional smokers in 1992 also smoked occasionally in 1990, compared to only about 40% of ever‐daily occasional smokers. Never‐daily occasional smokers smoke less than ever‐daily ones. They are more often under age 40 years, of Hispanic origin, and were more likely to begin regular smoking beyond their teen years. Demographically, ever‐daily occasional smokers were similar to daily smokers except for being more educated. However, both ever‐daily and never‐daily smokers differed from daily smokers with respect to long‐term quitting history, plans to quit, confidence they could quit, and belief they are addicted to cigarettes. Our findings suggest that occasional smoking can be a stable pattern for long periods. Occasional smokers, particularly never‐daily ones, appear to be much less addicted to nicotine than daily smokers.