Use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) increased significantly after 2017. The increase is attributed to a surge in popularity of vape pods containing nicotine salts, which are high ...nicotine concentration ENDS that may heighten risk for dependence. However, little is known about changes in ENDS dependence before and after the 2017 surge. We examined the trajectory of ENDS dependence among young adults from 2014 to 2019.
Participants were 1700 18-25-year-olds (57.6 % female) from 24 Texas colleges who reported past 30-day ENDS use in at least one of eight study waves. ENDS dependence was assessed at all waves with one item, use of ENDS within 30 min of waking. A discontinuous growth curve model was fit to test the hypothesis that the ENDS dependence trajectory would increase only after 2017, from 2018 to 2019. The model included socio-demographic and cigarette dependence covariates RESULTS: The proportion of young adults reporting ENDS dependence ranged from 2.3 % in 2014 to 8.2 % in 2019. Results from the discontinuous growth curve model indicated that the ENDS dependence trajectory was flat from fall 2014 to spring 2017. However, the post-2017 trajectory, from spring 2018 to spring 2019, was positive and significant indicating that the proportion of young adults reporting ENDS dependence increased after 2017.
The increase in ENDS dependence after 2017 likely resulted from the surge in popularity of vape pods containing nicotine salts. These vape pods are a disruptive technology that may result in more young adults developing nicotine dependence symptoms than do earlier generation devices.
It is well documented in the literature that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with lower consumption of healthy foods and that these differences in consumption patterns are influenced by ...neighborhood food environments. Less understood is the role that SES differences in physical and social aspects of the home food environment play in consumption patterns.
Using data on 4th grade children from the 2009-2011 Texas School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) study, we used mixed-effects regression models to test the magnitude of differences in the SPAN Health Eating Index (SHEI) by parental education as an indicator of SES, and the extent to which adjusting for measures of the home food environment, and measures of the neighborhood environment accounted for these SES differences.
Small but significant differences in children’s SHEI by SES strata exist (-1.33 between highest and lowest SES categories, p<0.01). However, incorporating home food environment and neighborhood environment measures in this model eliminates these differences (-0.7, p=0.145). Home food environment explains a greater portion of the difference. Both social (mealtime structure) and physical aspects (food availability) of the home food environment are strongly associated with consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods.
Our findings suggest that modifiable parent behaviors at home can improve children’s eating habits and that the neighborhood may impact diet in ways other than through access to healthy food.
Abstract Purpose High levels of family conflict increase the risk for early smoking initiation and smoking escalation among adolescents, whereas high levels of warmth and cohesion in the family are ...protective against smoking initiation. However, little is known about the associations between changes in family function during adolescence on subsequent smoking initiation among Mexican heritage adolescents. Methods In 2005–2006, 1,328 Mexican heritage adolescents aged 11–14 years enrolled in a cohort study to examine nongenetic and genetic factors associated with cigarette experimentation. In 2008–2009, 1,154 participants completed a follow-up. Multivariate logistic regression models were computed to prospectively examine associations between smoking behavior assessed in 2008–2009 and changes in family cohesion and family conflict assessed in both 2005–2006 and 2008–2009, controlling for gender, age, and linguistic acculturation, positive outcome expectations associated with smoking, as well as friends and family smoking behavior. Results Overall 21% had tried cigarettes by 2008–2009. Consistently low levels of family cohesion (odds ratio OR = 3.06; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.38–6.73) and decreases in family cohesion (OR = 2.36; 95% CI, 1.37–4.07), as well as consistently high levels of family conflict (OR = 1.74; 95% CI, 1.08–2.79) and increases in conflict (OR = 1.87; 95% CI, 1.19–2.94) were independent risk factors for smoking initiation among Mexican heritage youth. Conclusions Our findings suggest that family cohesion protects against adolescent smoking, whereas family conflict increases the risk for smoking. Therefore, intervention programs for adolescents and parents could focus on enhancing family bonding and closeness, which is protective against smoking initiation.
Young adults in the United States, including college students, have the highest prevalence of cannabis use compared with other age groups. Although cannabis vaping is increasingly prevalent during ...young adulthood, little is known about factors contributing to the onset of cannabis vaping during this developmental period.
Participants were 3085 cannabis vaping naïve young adults aged 18–25 years (M = 20.60; SD = 1.80), initially recruited from 24 Texas colleges and participating in a multi-wave, longitudinal study. A survival analysis was conducted to determine if participants reporting elevated depressive symptoms had an increased risk of onset of cannabis vaping over six follow-up waves from fall 2015 to spring 2019 compared to their peers with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Socio-demographic characteristics, time-varying past 30 day substance use, and time-varying peer nicotine vaping were included as covariates in the model.
Twenty-five percent of participants initiated cannabis vaping during the four-year study period, with stable initiation rates from 2015 to 2017 but doubling from 2017 to 2019. Analyses, both unadjusted and adjusted for study covariates, indicated that elevated depressive symptoms were significantly associated with an increased risk of cannabis vaping initiation.
Findings indicate that initiation of cannabis vaping during young adulthood is common, and particularly more likely among those with greater depressive symptoms, thus underscoring the importance of prevention programs that include mental health support services tailored to young adults.
•Elevated depressive symptoms increase the risk of cannabis vaping initiation.•Other substance use and peer nicotine vaping are significant predictors.•Findings highlight the need for prevention programs addressing mental health in young adults.
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Carbohydrates are appealing non-ionic surfactant head-groups as they are naturally abundant, generally biocompatible and biodegradable, and readily functionalized. Here, seven novel ...carbohydrate based surfactants (CBS) have been synthesized that contain a tri-ethylene glycol (TEG) linker between a glucose head-group and alkyl tail-group, with linear saturated (C8–18) and unsaturated (C18:1) alkyl chains. The aqueous adsorption and self-assembly of these surfactants was explored using tensiometry and small- and ultra-small-angle neutron scattering (SANS and USANS). With SANS we observed elongation from spherical to cylindrical micelles with increasing alkyl chain length. C16 and C18 chains exhibited pronounced Krafft points, yet formed worm-like micelles as single components upon heating to 43 and 48 °C respectively. The introduction of mono-unsaturation in the form of a C18:1 chain reduced the Krafft point and gave a surfactant that produced worm-like micelles in water without additives at room temperature. We also observed micellar elongation for C12 and C14 chains at 50 °C due to dehydration of the TEG linker. The room temperature worm-like micelles were further characterized using rheo-SANS and rheology, revealing the C18:1 surfactant to exhibit near ideal Maxwell behavior at low concentrations (2.9 wt.%). These results provide insight into structure-function relationships for CBS, and demonstrate a promising molecular candidate for the formation of viscoelastic worm-like micellar solutions.
Most suicides are first attempts that are difficult to predict, possibly reflecting impaired and unstable behavior regulation. We sought to identify characteristics specifically associated with ...severe suicidal behavior by comparing risk ratios (RRs) for severe suicidal attempts (ATTP) to RRs for suicidal ideation (SI) only in a transdiagnostic sample of Veterans, focusing on impulsive-aggressive or externalizing behavior (EB), substance use disorders (SUDs), and recurrent affective or psychotic disorders (ie, severe mental illness SMI).
The VA Information and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) Data Navigators provided aggregate phenotype counts and relevant
and clinic codes from about 350,000 Veterans in the US Department of Veterans Affairs national Million Veterans Program (MVP). Data were collected by MVP between 2011 and 2017, without relationship to the current work. Work on this report and related analyses took place from April 11, 2020, to October 6, 2021.
We compared 3 suicide risk groups: 1,269 Veterans with previous ATTP, 109,836 with SI only, and 242,872 without previous suicidality. Nearly three-fourths of ATTP Veterans did not have SMI diagnoses. RR for ATTP behavior was highest in Veterans with EB (25.4), followed by those with SUD (13.9); both RRs were greater than RRs for Veterans with schizophrenia (7.4) or bipolar disorder (7.8). ATTP RR was greater for smoking than for major depressive disorder (5.0 vs 3.5, respectively). RR for smoking, across clinical groups, was strongly related to RR for ATTP risk, but not for SI only.
: ATTP suicidal behavior was more strongly associated with EB and SUD than with SMI. Suicide risk is associated with SUD or EB beyond SMI, so routine clinical encounters in primary care and emergency settings must recognize EB, SUD, and smoking as risks for severe suicidal behavior.
Introduction
Research has demonstrated disparities in depressive symptoms among people who are marginalized. However, more work should examine depressive symptoms through an intersectional lens, ...recognizing that multiple systems of privilege and oppression interlock to create unique struggles where multiple marginalized identities meet. Recent methodological developments have advanced quantitative intersectionality research using multilevel modeling to partition variance in depressive symptoms to person-level sociodemographic variables and intersectional-level social strata. The purpose of this study is to leverage these methods to examine trajectories of depressive symptoms among young adults in Texas through an intersectional lens.
Methods
Multilevel modeling was used to examine the longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms among 3575 young adults from 24 colleges in Texas assessed seven times between Fall 2014 and Spring 2018. Intersectional identities included sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual and gender minority identities. The model examined time nested within individuals and individuals nested within intersectional social strata.
Results
Young adults in Texas experienced an increase in depressive symptoms from 2014–2018. Those with female, Hispanic, AAPI, other race/ethnicity, or LGBTQ + identities experienced more depressive symptoms. After controlling for the main effects of the sociodemographic variables, 0.08% of variance in depressive symptoms remained attributed to the effects of intersectional identities.
Conclusion
Evaluating disparities in depressive symptoms through an intersectional lens offers a more complete description of the epidemiology of depressive symptoms. Communities and institutions that serve marginalized people should consider the elevated burden of depressive symptoms that marginalized people may carry, and integrate culturally competent psychoeducation, assessments, and therapies where possible.
This study examines whether symptoms of depression, anxiety, or comorbid depression and anxiety are associated with future use of nicotine or THC in e-cigarettes.
Data were from an online survey of ...youth and young adults in urban areas of Texas with complete data (n = 2,307) in spring 2019 (baseline) and spring 2020 (12-month follow-up). Multivariable logistic regression models examined associations between self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, or comorbid depression and anxiety at baseline and past 30-day e-cigarette use with nicotine or THC at 12-month follow-up. Analyses adjusted for baseline demographics and baseline past 30-day e-cigarette, combustible tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol use and stratified by race/ethnicity, gender, grade level, and SES.
Participants were 16-23 years old, 58.1% female and 37.9% Hispanic. At baseline, 14.7% reported symptoms of comorbid depression and anxiety, 7.9% depression, and 4.7% anxiety. Prevalence of past 30-day e-cigarette use at 12-month follow-up was 10.4% with nicotine and 10.3% with THC. Symptoms of depression and comorbid depression and anxiety at baseline were significantly associated with both nicotine and THC use in e-cigarettes 12 months later. Symptoms of anxiety were associated with nicotine use in e-cigarettes 12 months later.
Symptoms of anxiety and depression may be important indicators of future nicotine and THC vaping among young people. Clinicians should be aware of groups most at risk who may benefit from substance use counseling and intervention.
Continuous treatments propensity scoring remains understudied as the majority of methods are focused on the binary treatment setting. Current propensity score methods for continuous treatments ...typically rely on weighting in order to produce causal estimates. It has been shown that in some continuous treatment settings, weighting methods can result in worse covariate balance than had no adjustments been made to the data. Furthermore, weighting is not always stable, and resultant estimates may be unreliable due to extreme weights. These issues motivate the current development of novel propensity score stratification techniques to be used with continuous treatments. Specifically, the generalized propensity score cumulative distribution function (GPS‐CDF) and the nonparametric GPS‐CDF approaches are introduced. Empirical CDFs are used to stratify subjects based on pretreatment confounders in order to produce causal estimates. A detailed simulation study shows superiority of these new stratification methods based on the empirical CDF, when compared with standard weighting techniques. The proposed methods are applied to the “Mexican‐American Tobacco use in Children” study to determine the causal relationship between continuous exposure to smoking imagery in movies, and smoking behavior among Mexican‐American adolescents. These promising results provide investigators with new options for implementing continuous treatment propensity scoring.
A systematic review is a valuable and influential research method that aims to identify and synthesize all literature relevant to the research question at hand. A well-conducted systematic review ...benefits the scientific community by providing a summary of all the existing evidence as well as generating new hypotheses and highlighting gaps in the literature. However, when a systematic review does not adhere to the recommended guidelines, it may introduce selection bias and generate false conclusions. Here, we present a commentary on a systematic review by the scholars Morley-Hewitt and Owen titled ‘A systematic review examining the association between female body image and the intention, initiation, and duration of postpartum infant feeding methods (breastfeeding vs. bottle-feeding)’ that included nine peer-reviewed articles but missed at least eight other peer-reviewed articles that aligned with their study aim, and therefore introduced selection bias in the review. To complete the missing piece, we provide a short summary of these additional articles and describe how they align with this systematic review.
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