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Corinne G Husten

Publications and source records attributed to Corinne G Husten.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Smoking and functional status among Medicare managed care enrollees.

BACKGROUND: Smoking is a major determinant of health status and outcomes. Current smoking has been associated with lower scores on the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36). Whether this occurs among the elderly and disabled Medicare populations is not known. This study assessed the relationships between smoking status and both physical and mental functioning in the Medicare managed-care population. METHODS: During the spring of 1998, data were collected from 134309 elderly and 8640 disabled Medicare beneficiaries for Cohort 1, Round 1 of the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey. We subsequently used these data to calculate mean standardized SF-36 scores, self-reported health status, and prevalence of smoking-related illness, by smoking status, after adjusting for demographic factors. RESULTS: Among the disabled, everyday and someday smokers had lower standardized physical component (PCS) and mental component (MCS) scores than never smokers (-2.4 to -4.5 points; p <0.01 for all). Among the elderly, the lowest PCS and MCS scores were seen among recent quitters (-5.1 and -3.7 points, respectively, below those for never smokers; p <0.01 for both), but current smokers also had significantly lower scores on both scales. For the elderly and disabled populations, MCS scores of long-term quitters were the same as nonsmokers. Similar patterns were seen across all eight SF-36 scales. Ever smokers had higher odds of reporting both less-than-good health and a history of smoking-related chronic disease. CONCLUSIONS: In the elderly and disabled Medicare populations, smokers report worse physical and mental functional status than never smokers. Long-term quitters have better functional status than those who still smoke. More effort should be directed at helping elderly smokers to quit earlier. Smoking cessation has implications for improving both survival and functional status.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Nondaily smokers: a descriptive analysis.

To describe the characteristics of persons in the United States who smoke but do not smoke daily, we analyzed 1997-1998 data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The NHIS collects self-reported information on cigarette smoking from a representative sample of the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged 18 years or older through in-home surveys. Nondaily smokers were defined as persons who had ever smoked 100 cigarettes, smoked "some days," and smoked on fewer than 30 of the past 30 days. In 1997-1998, an estimated 16.0% of current smokers were nondaily smokers. Being a nondaily smoker was more common among smokers aged 18-24 years (19.9%) than among those aged 45-64 years (12.0%), more common among Black and Hispanic smokers (19.2% and 29.9%, respectively) than among White smokers (13.9%), and more common among smokers with at least a college education (28.2%) than among those with 9-11, 12, or 13-15 years of education (10.0%, 12.5%, or 15.9%, respectively). Mean cigarettes smoked per day for those who had smoked on 1-9, 10-19, and 20-29 of the past 30 days equaled 3.9, 5.3, and 7.0, respectively, compared with 19.0 for daily smokers. Nondaily smokers were more likely than daily smokers to have a quit attempt in the past year (55.2% vs. 40.0%). In conclusion, rates of nondaily smoking vary substantially by age, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment. Differences by education suggest that this behavior may be influenced by knowledge and social norms. Nondaily smoking may be a useful intermediate outcome for assessing changes in smoking prevalence. Cessation interventions need to be tailored for nondaily smokers, who may differ from daily smokers in important ways.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Possible lessons from the tobacco experience for obesity control.

Although obesity is increasing to epidemic proportions in many developed countries, some of these same countries are reporting substantial reductions in tobacco use. Unlike tobacco, food and physical activity are essential to life. Yet similar psychological, social, and environmental factors as well as advertising pressures influence the usage patterns of all 3. These similarities suggest that there may be commonalities between factors involved in controlling obesity and tobacco. This review, therefore, seeks to draw lessons from the tobacco experience for the organization of more successful obesity control. Smoking cessation counseling by physicians has been found to be one of the most clinically effective and cost-effective of all disease prevention interventions. When used alone, however, it cannot decrease the cultural acceptability of tobacco and the pressures and cues to smoke. Research and evaluation have shown the key elements of tobacco control to be (1) clinical intervention and management, (2) educational strategies, (3) regulatory efforts, (4) economic approaches, and (5) the combination of all of these into comprehensive programs that address multiple facets of the environment simultaneously. For each element, we present the evidence outlining its importance for tobacco control, discuss its application to date in obesity control, and suggest areas for further research. Viewing all of the elements involved and recognizing their synergistic effects draws researchers and practitioners back from an exclusive concentration on their particular setting to consider how they might seek to influence other settings in which individuals and populations must negotiate desired changes in nutrition and physical activity.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗