Adolescent Smoking Topography over Time

Despite data supporting the decline in rates of cigarette smoking in middle and high school as well as the high cost of smoking in the United States, a significant portion of these adolescents categorize themselves as “current smokers.” The current study evaluated changes in smoking topography over time in a sample of adolescents. Adolescent smokers (n = 45) participated in a laboratory study as a part of a Program Project (“The Social and Emotional Contexts of Adolescent Smoking Patterns”). Participants were offered to smoke a cigarette ad libitum in the laboratory and smoking topography was measured at two time points, at baseline (“Visit 1;” Mean age 15.67 years, SD = 0.65) and fifteen months later (“Visit 2”), using a CReSS micro device after a minimum of four hours of nicotine deprivation. Smoking topography variables were transformed into three summed Z scores, corresponding to a factor analysis conducted with a larger subset of the laboratory study’s data (Giedgowd, Kassel, and Mermelstein, in preparation). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that, from Visit 1 to Visit 2, adolescents manifested fewer puffs and longer interpuff intervals, as evidenced by decreasing Puff Number and Pacing scores over time. Puff Size and Length and Inhalation Speed did not significantly change over time. In addition, similar to observations found in adult smokers, sex differences in Puff Size and Length and Inhalation Speed emerged over time. Depression and Anxiety symptoms evidenced a lagged effect, such that scores at Time 1 influenced smoking topography at Visit 2. In addition, a marginal effect for number of biological parents who were “ever smokers” on Inhalation Speed was observed at Visit 2. These results are among the first to a) characterize developmental changes in smoking topography and b) use smoking topography factors in lieu of individual topography measures as outcomes, addressing issues of correlated dependent variables.