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Background Migrants make up a growing share of European populations, and very little is known about the impact of migration on their smoking patterns. We develop a longitudinal analysis of smoking prevalence among native-born and immigrants in France based on retrospective data collected in the 2010 national Baromètre santé health survey. Methods Analyses concerned 19 578 individuals aged 18–70 years and born in metropolitan France, in the Maghreb or in sub-Saharan Africa. Person-years with and without smoking were reconstructed using migration and smoking histories and analyzed with discrete-time regression models. Results Prior to migration, immigrants from both the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa had lower smoking prevalence than the native-born of similar birth cohort, age and education. After migration, the prevalence increased over time among Maghrebin men up to levels beyond those of the native-born (odds ratio: 1.54 [1.09–2.17] for 10 years of residence or more), while it remained much lower throughout among men from sub-Saharan Africa (odds ratio: 0.36 [0.19–0.68] for 10 years of residence or more). Starting at extremely low levels, the prevalence in both groups of women rose considerably after migration. Women from sub-Saharan Africa nearly caught up to the native-born (odds ratio: 0.70 [0.37–1.32] for 10 years of residence or more), but this was not the case for those from the Maghreb (odds ratio: 0.52 [0.33–0.81] for 10 years of residence or more). Conclusion The findings uncover the low pre-migration prevalence and the diversity of post-migration trajectories. Tobacco control programs targeting recently arrived migrants would contribute to prevent unhealthy assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to confirm the influence of cannabis use patterns on the probability of initiation with other illicit drugs (OID). A French nationwide retrospective cohort on drug use was reconstituted on 29,393 teenagers. A Markov multi-state model was fitted, modelling all possible pathways from initial abstinence to cannabis initiation, daily cannabis use and OID initiation. The model was adjusted for tobacco and alcohol use. The risk for OID initiation appeared 21 times higher among cannabis experimenters and 124 times higher among daily cannabis users than among non-users. Tobacco and alcohol use were associated with a greater risk of moving on to cannabis initiation (hazard ratio (HR)=1.2 for tobacco initiation, HR=2.6 for daily tobacco use and HR=2.8 for drunkenness initiation). The results of this study provide a confirmation of a stage process in drug use, mediated by cannabis and liable to lead to OID experiment. This is compatible with the literature on the gateway theory, but goes further by modelling the entire sequence of use. OID experiment could be a consequence of initial opportunity to use the more accessible illicit drug, cannabis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIMS: This study investigates the evolution of educational inequalities in smoking initiation and cessation in France according to gender and birth cohort. METHODS: We used a 2005 nationwide survey comprising 25,239 subjects aged 18-75 years. Three cohort groups were defined (born 1930-1945, 1946-1965 or 1966-1987). We compared their smoking histories until age 40 years with time-discrete logistic regressions. Educational differences in initiation and cessation were quantified using odds ratios and relative indices of inequality (RII), and the gender gap using odds ratios (gender ratios). RESULTS: For smoking initiation, in the oldest cohorts, no educational gradient appeared in men, but there was a positive gradient in women (RII=0.19); in the middle cohorts, a negative gradient emerged in men (RII=1.55), while the positive gradient reduced in women (RII=0.74); in the youngest cohorts, there was a strengthening of the negative gradient in men (RII=2.72), and the emergence of a negative gradient for women (RII=1.86). The gender ratio narrowed from the oldest cohorts (3.23) to the youngest (1.09), and diminished with increasing educational level within each cohort. For smoking cessation, the educational gradients were negative in both genders, with wider gaps in the youngest cohorts, and gender ratios below 1 reflecting more marked cessation dynamics in women. CONCLUSION: Women are at an earlier stage in the tobacco epidemic than men for initiation and at a later stage for cessation and social inequalities are widening. We believe that they will not decrease unless gender and the psycho-social aspects of smoking are considered in prevention campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although the use of cannabis among young people has become a major public health concern, there is no such test in France for general population surveys. Objective: This article aims to present a short screening test for cannabis abuse among adolescents and young adults in general population surveys, the CAST (Cannabis Abuse Screening Test) designed at the French Monitoring Center for Drug and Drug addictions (OFDT). Methods: The survey was conducted in France among 1728 scholars aged 14-22, in secondary schools, high schools, and university. After presenting internal consistency and factorial structure, the authors compared the CAST with the part of the POSIT (Problem-Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers) dealing with alcohol and drug abuse among cannabis users in order to validate the optimal thresholds of the CAST for the high risk of abuse defined for the POSIT. Results: The CAST appears to be unidimensional and have high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha equals 0.81). Among cannabis users whoa are low alcohol consumers, CAST presents very high sensitivity and specificity compared with the POSIT (respectively, 93 and 81%). Conclusions: The CAST seems to be an efficient tool in order to screen for cannabis use disorders among adolescents and young adults. Further research is needed to confirm this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article reports on drug abuse violation arrests and general population surveys. The article analyzes the relevance of arrest data and their interpretation in the light of police strategies. Further, the article compares the sociodemographics of arrested cannabis users and surveyed cannabis users.