Understanding Nicotine Dependence and Addiction Among Young Adults Who Smoke Cigarillos: A Qualitative Study

Antognoli, Elizabeth; Cavallo, David N.; Trapl, Erika S.; Step, Mary M.; Gonzalez, Sarah Koopman; Perez, Rose; Flocke, Susan A.

doi:10.1093/ntr/ntx008

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Our findings corroborate the findings from existing literature that suggest that when assessing cigar use, more detailed information, such as brand names, is needed. 2,4,7,28,31,33-36 Our findings also expand previous research by suggesting that when assessing cigar use, the use of cigars without manipulation or the use of cigars by manipulating them into blunts should be considered.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Blunt use is different from other tobacco and marijuana use in that the ritual of creating blunts and smoking blunts often occurs in a group activity. 28,30 Thus, it is not surprising that most youth reported that their first experience with blunts and their primary source of information regarding learning how to create and smoke blunts was peers. Social sources (eg, older peers, adults) were also a common source for acquiring cigars among underage youth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing qualitative studies conducted among adolescents and young adults have shed some light on perceptions and use behaviors related to blunts. 5,25-28 The existing studies indicate that blunts may be popular among youth because cigars used to create blunts are inexpensive and they are widely available in local stores. 29 Furthermore, the process of creating and smoking blunts often occurs as a social activity among adolescents and adults.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Blunt Use among Adolescents and Young Adults: Informing Cigar Regulations

et al. 2018

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Objectives: We used focus groups to understand cigar product features that increase the appeal of blunts (hollowed out cigars filled with marijuana) among adolescents and young adults. Methods: With a standardized focus group guide, we assessed cigar use behaviors and perceptions among lifetime cigar users (N = 47; 8 focus groups separated by sex and age group [adolescents, young adults]) in 2016. We analyzed data related to blunts. Results: Overall, 85.5% of the participants had smoked a blunt in the past 30 days (38% used daily). Participants perceived that cheap cigar brands were used primarily for blunts. Cigar product features that made them useful for blunts included wide availability, easy accessibility (easy to bypass underage purchasing restrictions), attractive flavors, inexpensive cost, perforated wrappers that make cigars easy to open, and ability to remove the inner wrapper (also referred to as “cancer paper”) to reduce the risk of harm. Conclusions: Various product features of cigars make it easy for adolescents and young adults to manipulate them to create blunts. Tobacco regulations that include restrictions on product characteristics, as well as enforcement of prohibition of sales of cigars to underage minors are needed. Youth also need to be educated about harms of blunt use.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Blunt Use among Adolescents and Young Adults: Informing Cigar Regulations

et al. 2018

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“…Like others,16 18 we found sharing to be common among cigarillo users. The conventional method yielded higher estimates of daily cigarillo consumption than the detailed method for those who always share products.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Although there is no gold standard, a widely used conventional measure of tobacco consumption relies on two global questions to assess smoking days and number of tobacco products smoked on smoking days 10 11. A growing body of evidence suggests that measurement of cigarillo use may be complicated by several issues, such as variations in product terminology,12 13 manipulation of cigarillos to include marijuana14 15 and sharing of cigarillos in a group setting 16–18. While recent research has addressed some of these issues, such as using brand-specific examples and assessing subtypes of cigar products,13 19 20 to date, none have incorporated cigarillo use patterns into a measurement strategy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of methods to measure daily cigarillo consumption among adolescents and young adults

et al. 2019

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ObjectiveCigarillo use is widespread among young people. Accurate assessment of cigarillo consumption is necessary to inform and evaluate tobacco research, but is complicated by product sharing and irregular use. This study compares a conventional approach with a detailed approach for measuring cigarillo consumption.MethodsData are drawn from a cross-sectional, web-based survey of 1089 young (aged 15–28 years) cigarillo smokers. The conventional measure of cigarillo consumption employs two common tobacco use items—the number of days a product was smoked in the past month and the average number of products smoked per day. The detailed measure uses a time line follow-back procedure to assess product use on each of the past 7 days, both in a group and alone. Paired t-tests compare daily cigarillo use estimates from the two methods overall, and are stratified by sample characteristics and behaviours; associations with multiple factors are examined simultaneously using linear regression.ResultsCompared with the conventional measure, the detailed measure yields significantly higher daily consumption estimates for moderate and high-level users and for non-daily tobacco users, and significantly lower estimates for those who always share products and daily tobacco users. Differences remain after controlling for demographics and product use behaviours. There are no differences by gender, age, race or multiple product use.ConclusionsThe two measurement methods yield significantly different consumption estimates based on sharing behaviour, regularity of use and use level. Improving accuracy in the measurement of tobacco product consumption is important and timely for tobacco control research and policy.

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