Grant Details
Grant Number: |
3R01CA235719-02S1 Interpret this number |
Primary Investigator: |
Pechacek, Terry |
Organization: |
Georgia State University |
Project Title: |
Smokers' Decision-Making About Tobacco Use: the Interplay of Affective and Cognitive Factors with Product Characteristics |
Fiscal Year: |
2020 |
Abstract
Project Abstract
This application is being submitted in response to the Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) identified as NOT-CA-
20-039. Smokers commonly report co-use with alcohol, and linkages between alcohol use and tobacco use are
well-established at multiple levels in the research literature. Tobacco is often used concurrently while drinking
alcohol, which influences subsequent co-use behaviors and transitions. For instance, smoking quit attempts are
less likely to be successful in the context of alcohol use, and policies targeting use of one product have shown
spillover effects on use of the other. However, there has been limited research on the co-use of electronic nicotine
delivery systems (ENDS) or heated tobacco products (HTP) and alcohol, and whether alcohol use patterns,
including co-use with tobacco, influences tobacco use trajectories and outcomes among smokers who use
ENDS. It is similarly unclear how regulatory policies for ENDS and HTPs affect alcohol use. The objective of
this project is to provide timely evidence on patterns of tobacco and alcohol co-use among smokers who use
ENDS or HTP; how these patterns affect smokers’ decisions to reject ENDS/HTP, substitute them for only a few
cigarettes, switch exclusively to them, or use them to completely quit using tobacco; and evaluate how excise
taxes and tobacco use restrictions in restaurants and bars affect stated preferences for alcohol and impact
tobacco and alcohol co-use. Guided by our prior research, our Aim 1 will examine alcohol and tobacco co-use
behaviors among dual users of cigarettes and ENDS/HTP and test whether alcohol-tobacco co-use affects
tobacco use transition-probabilities and long-term outcomes. Aim 2 will evaluate the impact of excise taxes,
tobacco use restrictions in restaurants and bars, and regulations of the availability of alcohol flavors in tobacco
products on behavioral outcomes including tobacco and alcohol co-use and consumption levels. These aims will
be accomplished by leveraging the parent grant’s intensive longitudinal study of 300 smokers who recently
initiated ENDS or HTP use by adding an additional assessment with a volumetric choice experiment and focus
on tobacco and alcohol co-use and by embedding alcohol related questions in existing assessments of the
longitudinal study. Data generated by this administrative supplement will provide a more complete understanding
of the decision-making processes and factors involved in smokers’ use of ENDS and HTP and the likelihoods
that ENDS/HTP use will lead to complete quitting of cigarettes or to sustained dual use, and how the tobacco
control policies could have spillover effects on alcohol use. The high impact of this research will be produced by
study findings that improve the evidentiary base and quality of local, state, and federal policies and regulations
and translatable knowledge that guides future research and clinical practice to encourage less dual use and
more switching exclusively from combusted tobacco products to ENDS/HTP or complete cessation of all tobacco
products.
Publications
None. See parent grant details.