Biomedical subjects

Susan I Woodruff

Publications and source records attributed to Susan I Woodruff.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Comparing two methods of measuring legislation compliance among indoor tanning facilities.

BACKGROUND: Accurate measurement of compliance by tanning facilities to indoor tanning legislation is important. OBJECTIVE: This study compared a telephone-based measurement procedure with a face-to-face visit. METHODS: Indoor tanning facilities (N = 115) in San Diego County, California, were contacted by two adolescents posing as prospective customers using each method. Two compliance variables were assessed: number of times one can tan during 1 week and written parental consent for minors. RESULTS: Facility compliance with the frequency variable by face-to-face and telephone was 25.5% and 17.5%, respectively. These rates for the parental consent variable were 73.3% and 80.8%, respectively. Percent agreement between data collection methods was 71.3% for compliance with the frequency recommendation and 76.3% for parental consent regulation. Although traditional statistical tests indicated poor concordance, an alternative test indicated good concordance. LIMITATIONS: Levels of concordance for the confederates differed. CONCLUSION: Telephone assessment of compliance is fairly comparable with the more labor-intensive, face-to-face assessment.

Beauty Culture↗

PubMed2006

Effects of an introductory letter on response rates to a teen/parent telephone health survey.

The authors conducted a pilot study in preparation for a larger investigation that will rely on telephone surveys to assess select health behaviors of teens and their parents, with a focus on indoor tanning. This study used a randomized design to assess the impact of a presurvey letter on response rates to a telephone survey, as well as prevalence estimates of ever having used an indoor tanning facility. The letter did not have a significant effect on response rates or prevalence estimates in the two cities under study. Findings suggest that researchers should not assume that a letter sent in advance of a telephone survey will necessarily increase response rates enough to justify their use.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Parental prompts as risk factors for adolescent trial smoking: results of a prospective cohort study.

Our earlier cross-sectional research suggested that smoking parents, particularly Latino parents, engage in behaviors that may prompt their children to smoke (e.g., request their child to start the parent's cigarette in his/her own mouth). This prospective study of 478 adolescent never-smokers, mostly Latino, suggests that parental prompts to smoke were not significantly related to smoking initiation among adolescents over a 1-year period.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Concordance between parental and children's reports of parental smoking prompts.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of parental prompting to smoke (eg, parent requests that their child light the parent's cigarette in his/her own mouth) in a sample of families, and to assess the agreement between child and parent reports of the prompting behaviors. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3,624 adolescents from 10 middle/junior high schools completed baseline surveys. Parents identified as smokers in these surveys were contacted to complete a telephone survey. These analyses included 270 parent/child pairs. Fifty-one percent of parents were Latino American, 51% had the equivalent of a high-school diploma, 83% were employed when surveyed, and the median household monthly income was between $2,200 and $2,599. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Students completed a paper-and-pencil survey assessing demographic characteristics, seven parental prompts to smoke, past month smoking, parental smoking, acculturation, and familism. A similar questionnaire was developed to collect information by telephone from smoking parents. Concordance between child- and parent-reported prompting was > 85% for five of seven prompts. However, the reported prevalence of six of the seven prompts was lower among parents than children. Thirty-two percent of mothers and 17% of fathers reported prompting their children to bring cigarettes to parents (the most common prompt). Students reported that 62% of their mothers and 54% of their fathers prompted them to bring their cigarettes, a substantial discrepancy in both cases. CONCLUSIONS: Child-reported prompting prevalence was consistently higher than parents' reports, with the biggest discrepancies between requests to clean ashtrays and bring cigarettes, the two most common prompts. In subsequent studies of parental prompting, it is advisable to collect data from both children and parents and to validate the accuracy of the sources.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Operation Stay Quit: evaluation of two smoking relapse prevention strategies for women after involuntary cessation during US Navy recruit training.

The present study evaluated two relapse-prevention interventions intended to help women smokers maintain the "quit status" mandated during Navy basic training. Women with any smoking experience before entering the Navy (N = 2,781) were assigned to either a control group or to one of two intervention groups (access to a telephone help line or receive a series of monthly mailings) after graduating from basic training. Smoking/quit rates at 3, 6, and 12 months after graduation were assessed with mailed surveys. Response rates to the surveys ranged from 39% to 52%. There were no phone or mail intervention effects: cessation rates for the three conditions at the 12-month follow-up were 43% for control, 45% for the mail intervention, and 41% for the phone intervention. Results suggest the need for more aggressive relapse-prevention efforts, although quit rates were higher than expected "spontaneous" quit rates, indicating an impact of the totally smoke-free recruit training environment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Smoking-related attitudes and their sociodemographic correlates among Mexican-origin adult smokers.

The purpose of the study was to describe smoking-related knowledge and attitudes of a specific group of Latino smokers, and to identify sociodemographic correlates. This study is one of the few to provide information about smoking-related psychosocial variables and their correlates among a Latino subgroup. A survey was administered to a volunteer sample of adult smokers of Mexican-origin (n = 278) to assess their sociodemographic characteristics, and smoking-related knowledge and attitudes. Measures of smoking-related attitudes targeted six constructs: self-efficacy for quitting smoking, anticipated outcomes, intentions to quit, normative expectations, social support, and barriers to quitting. Smoking/cessation knowledge was assessed with a 14 item test. This sample of smokers had high knowledge and positive attitudes about quitting smoking. Several sociodemographic variables were associated with attitudinal knowledge variables, although no consistent pattern of association was seen. Results underscore the complexity between smoking-related attitudes and sociodemographic factors, and are discussed in terms of implications for culturally-tailored interventions.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Pilot test of an assessment instrument for Latina community health advisors conducting an ETS intervention.

Community health advisors (CHAs), also known as promotores, are lay individuals in the community that others tend to look toward for advice and support. Studies incorporating CHAs are relatively rare, and CHAs have not been used in previous intervention studies to reduce environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure. The present study pilot tested a CHA assessment instrument and examined the effects of promotora training on CHAs' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs concerning ETS reduction. Participants were 11 women recruited from the local community. CHA training produced changes on several psychosocial constructs. Anticipated outcomes regarding ETS reduction and emotional reactions related to volunteering in the community were more positive after training. Self-esteem and self-efficacy showed increases after training. Future research will investigate the relationship between the psychosocial characteristics measured in the assessment instrument and subsequent success implementing the ETS reduction intervention.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Acceptability and validity of hair collection from Latino children to assess exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

This study assessed the acceptability of collecting hair from Latino children to measure environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and examined the concurrent validity between nicotine and cotinine levels in children's hair in relation to adult reports of the children's ETS exposure. Trained Latina lay community health advisors recruited 143 Spanish-speaking Latino adult volunteers and their children. Bilingual-bicultural measurement technicians collected two types of data: (a) the adult's paper-and-pencil report about the child's past-month exposure to cigarettes in the home and car and (b) a sample of the child's hair to be analyzed for nicotine and cotinine. Of the eligible subjects, 8.5% declined to participate because of the hair collection protocol, some citing cultural beliefs. Among participants in the study, few problems arose related to hair collected, probably because of the culturally sensitive approach used during recruitment and measurement. Adults' reports of exposure, hair nicotine, and hair cotinine showed considerable variation and were skewed to the right. Average nicotine levels for these children appeared to be comparable to those reported elsewhere, whereas cotinine levels appeared to be somewhat lower. Hair nicotine was more detectable than hair cotinine and, compared with cotinine, showed a clearer linear relationship with adults' reports. However, associations between adults' reports and both biological measures were modest. Collecting hair samples in the field (i.e., participants' homes) to measure Latino children's ETS exposure is generally acceptable when appropriate methods are used. Hair nicotine may be a more valid and practical biological measure than hair cotinine. Hair sampling may be a potentially useful, noninvasive technique in ETS studies, although the modest associations of constituents in children's hair with adults' reports indicates that each measure provides different information about ETS exposure.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Teen smoking cessation help via the Internet: a survey of search engines.

The objective of this study was to assess Web sites related to teen smoking cessation on the Internet. Seven Internet search engines were searched using the keywords teen quit smoking. The top 20 hits from each search engine were reviewed and categorized. The keywords teen quit smoking produced between 35 and 400,000 hits depending on the search engine. Of 140 potential hits, 62% were active, unique sites; 85% were listed by only one search engine; and 40% focused on cessation. Findings suggest that legitimate on-line smoking cessation help for teens is constrained by search engine choice and the amount of time teens spend looking through potential sites. Resource listings should be updated regularly. Smoking cessation Web sites need to be picked up on multiple search engine searches. Further evaluation of smoking cessation Web sites need to be conducted to identify the most effective help for teens.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Indoor tanning facility density in eighty U.S. cities.

The purpose of this study was to examine the number of tanning facilities in select U.S. cities. The twenty most populated cities from each of 4 U.S. regions were selected for the sample. For each city, data on the number of tanning facilities, climate, and general demographic profile were collected. Data for state tanning facility legislation also were collected. A tanning facility density variable was created by dividing the city's number of facilities by its population size. The 80 cities had an average of 50 facilities each. Results of linear regression analysis indicated that higher density was significantly associated with colder climate, lower median income, and higher proportion of Whites. These data indicate that indoor tanning facilities are prevalent in the environments of U.S. urban-dwellers. Cities having the higher density profile may be logical targets for interventions promoting less or safer use of these facilities.

Beauty Culture↗

PubMed2002

Parental prompting and smoking among Latino youth.

OBJECTIVES: Our previous research indicated that Latino parents, more so than non-Latino parents, may prompt their children to engage in behaviors that encourage them to "practice" smoking-related behaviors. The present study examined Latino and non-Latino adolescents' reports of parental prompting, defined as parental requests to: 1) empty/clean ashtrays; 2) bring cigarettes to parent; 3) accept tobacco industry promotional gear as a gift; 4) buy cigarettes for parent; 5) light parent's cigarette with a match or lighter; 6) start the cigarette in his/her own mouth and then pass it to parent; and 7) smoke with the parent. DESIGN AND METHODS: In 10 schools in the Southbay area of San Diego, 3,599 7th and 8th grade middle school students, the majority of whom were Latino, completed cross-sectional surveys assessing 7 parental prompts, past-month smoking, parental smoking, acculturation, and familism. RESULTS: Findings indicated that parental prompts were less prevalent than in our previous work. We also found that there were not consistent or great differences in the prevalence of prompting between Latinos and non-Latinos and that parental prompting, particularly requests that the child light the parent's cigarettes with a match or lighter, was associated with children's smoking. Further, we found that Latino adolescents may be influenced by more parental prompts than non-Latinos, and finally that higher familism scores were significantly associated with lower risk of smoking, regardless of ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: Parental prompting and familism appear to be important correlates of adolescent smoking.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Smoking and quitting history correlates of readiness to quit in multiethnic adolescents.

OBJECTIVES: To describe smoking and quitting history among multiethnic adolescent smokers and examine these as correlates of readiness to quit. METHODS: Data were analyzed from 121 high school smokers. Sociodemographic characteristics, self-reported smoking history, number and duration of recent quit attempts, attitudes toward smoking/quitting, and readiness to quit were included. RESULTS: Smoking and quitting history variables were associated with adolescents' stage of readiness to quit. A reasonably consistent pattern emerged in which those in the preparation stage were significantly different from the precontemplators and contemplators. CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed in terms of interventions matched to individuals' readiness to quit.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Availability of cigarettes as a risk factor for trial smoking in adolescents.

OBJECTIVES: To examine associations between cigarette availability measures with trial (ie, first) use of cigarettes. METHODS: At Time 1 and one year later (Time 2), 478 adolescents completed smoking surveys. Trial smoking at Time 2 was predicted from Time 1 availability variables (prospective prediction), as well as Time 2 availability variables (cross-sectional prediction). RESULTS: Offers from friends/classmates were a significant cross-sectional predictor. In prospective analyses, greater perceptions of ease of obtaining cigarettes from parents and greater frequency of offers from an adult were related to trial smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Adult influences, including parental factors, may predispose a young adolescent to smoke.

Adolescent↗