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Objectives: Little cigars and cigarillos may resemble cigarettes, but may be less expensive and can be purchased singly and in flavored varieties. We used two major U.S. surveys to investigate use of cigarillos and cigarettes. Methods: The 2010/2011 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey ascertained cigar use by brand and type (little cigars/cigarillos or large/regular). The annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) assessed cigar use by brand, 2002-2011. We used the available data to classify cigars by type among males in the NSDUH. Results: Estimated prevalence of little cigar use among male cigar smokers was similar using the two surveys. From 2002 to 2011, past-30-day cigarette smoking declined for all age groups and genders, but among young adult men (aged 18-25) little cigar smoking remained steady at nearly 9%. "Cigarette and/or cigar" smoking was 44% among young adult men in 2011, and was consistently 6 percentage points higher than cigarette-only smoking, from 2002 to 2011. Over 60% of male and 70% of female adolescent/young adult cigar smokers also smoked cigarettes in 2011. Most male adolescents preferred little cigars to traditional cigars. Among males, most lower income or less educated cigar smokers preferred little cigars, compared to only 16% of those with higher education. Conclusions: These patterns indicate that little cigar/cigarillo use may promote initiation and maintenance of cigarette smoking, particularly among younger and less advantaged populations. Population-level data are urgently needed to better assess type of cigar smoked and reasons for use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both biological and social sciences have identified contributing factors to human health. However, health outcomes are unlikely to equal a simple sum of these identified factors. This article makes an attempt to put together the information, methods, and technologies that relate to health outcomes from biological, behavioral, and social disciplines. Much of this information was obtained by controlling for the variations of the factors in 'other' disciplines. For example, genetic factors were controlled for in identifying the behavioral determinants of health. Looking forward, better understandings of health outcomes may require exploiting the interactions of health determinants that were identified from different disciplines. We propose the concept of 'systems health' studies, which take health outcomes as the outputs of a system, where the inputs and their interactions from multiple disciplines are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined smoking cessation characteristics of smokers who reported seeking mental health treatment. Methods: Data for adult current smokers (N= 18,939) were combined from the 2000,2005, and 2010 National Health Interview Survey. Multivariate regressions were used to assess associations between smoking cessation behaviors, cessation-related social norms, and mental health treatment. Results: Smokers (N= 1,897) who reported seeing mental health professionals for mental health problems had higher odds of having made attempts to quit in the past year (odds ratio [OR] =1.17), of having used nicotine replacement therapy (OR = 1.28), and of using face-to-face counseling (OR=2.40), telephone quit lines (OR=1.81), and support groups (OR= 1.63) to assist smoking cessation. They were more likely to have been advised by healtii professionals to quit smoking (OR= 1.62) but less likely to kVe in a smoke-free home (OR =.78). Use of smoking cessation treatments and prevalence of smoke-free homes increased over the sampling period. Conclusions: Findings highlight the need for tailored efforts to reduce tobacco use among people with mental health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents research on trends in Cannabis use disorder (CUD) among pregnant women in the U.S. from 1993 to 2014. Topics discussed include access of trends for subgroup by logistic regression; increased rate of diagnosed CUD among delivery hospitalizations; and antenatal diagnoses or procedures done in hospitalizations and women frequently diagnosed with CUD.