Cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking in a representative sample of English school pupils: Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations

Background—Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating and untreatable motor neuron disease; smoking and alcohol drinking may impact its progression rate. Objective—To ascertain the influence of smoking and alcohol consumption on ALS progression rates. Methods—Cross-sectional multicenter study, including 241 consecutive patients (145 males); mean age at onset was 59.9 ± 11.8 years. Cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption data were collected at recruitment through a validated questionnaire. Patients were categorized into three groups according to ΔFS (derived from the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised and disease duration from onset): slow (n = 81), intermediate (80), and fast progressors (80). Results—Current smokers accounted for 44 (18.3%) of the participants, former smokers accounted for 10 (4.1%), and non-smokers accounted for 187 (77.6%). The age of ALS onset was lower in current smokers than non-smokers, and the ΔFS was slightly, although not significantly, higher for smokers of >14 cigarettes/day. Current alcohol drinkers accounted for 147 (61.0%) of the participants, former drinkers accounted for 5 (2.1%), and non-drinkers accounted for 89 (36.9%). The log(ΔFS) was weakly correlated only with the duration of alcohol consumption (p = 0.028), but not with the mean number of drinks/day or the drink-years. Conclusions: This cross-sectional multicenter study suggested a possible minor role for smoking in worsening disease progression. A possible interaction with alcohol drinking was suggested.

Download Full-text

Experience Assessment of Tobacco Smoking, Alcohol Drinking, and Substance Use Among Shahroud University Students by Crosswise Model Estimation –The Alarm to Families

The Open Public Health Journal ◽

10.2174/1874944501912010033 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 33-37

Author(s):

Katayon Vakilian ◽

Afsaneh Keramat ◽

Seyyes Abass Mousavi ◽

Reza Chaman

Keyword(s):

Substance Use ◽

Cigarette Smoking ◽

Alcohol Drinking ◽

Primary Schools ◽

School Curriculum ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Model Estimation ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Crosswise Model ◽

Iranian Students

Background In this study, we considered to determine the estimation of experience of substance use, cigarette smoking, and alcohol drinking among Iranian students, using the crosswise model estimation. Methods The Cross-sectional study was done in November 2012 to February 2013. A total of 1500 students were selected from Shahroud Universities, using multistage sampling. Three pairs of questions were designed, based on the crosswise model, and the questionnaire was presented to the students after written consent forms were obtained. Data were analyzed using Ch2, t-test and crosswise test. Results The Mean ±SD age of girls was 20.26±1.49 vs boys 20.32±1. 575. Based on the findings, the prevalence of cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, and substance abuse among students was 20%, 33%, and 7%, respectively. Conclusion Considering the high prevalence of drug use among Iranian students and the unbiased design of this study, it is suggested that the necessary skills be incorporated and introduced in the school curriculum for students at primary schools.

Download Full-text

Longitudinal Associations of Narcissism with Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Institutional Outcomes: An Investigation Using a Representative Sample of the German Population

Collabra Psychology ◽

10.1525/collabra.248 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Marius Leckelt ◽

David Richter ◽

Eunike Wetzel ◽

Mitja D. Back

Keyword(s):

Representative Sample ◽

Panel Study ◽

Age Groups ◽

German Population ◽

Exploratory Research ◽

Grandiose Narcissism ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Unidimensional Construct ◽

Research Questions ◽

Longitudinal Associations

Most studies have treated grandiose narcissism as a unidimensional construct and investigated its associations in cross-sectional convenience samples. The present research systematically addresses these limitations by investigating the associations of agentic and antagonistic aspects of narcissism in the interpersonal, intrapersonal, and institutional domains, cross-sectionally and longitudinally in a population-representative sample. We used data (N = 1,526) from the representative, longitudinal German Socio-economic Panel study innovation sample (SOEP-IS). Both pre-registered and exploratory research questions regarding interpersonal, intrapersonal, and institutional outcomes of agentic and antagonistic aspects of narcissism were tested. Cross-sectional associations generally confirmed the differential adaptivity of narcissism aspects: While agentic narcissism was related tofriendship, happiness, self-esteem, employment, leadership and income, antagonistic narcissism was negatively related tointrapsychic adjustment. Longitudinally, agentic aspects were positively associated with holding a leadership position while the antagonistic aspects were related to lowerself-esteem and being unemployed. Additional differentiated longitudinal associations were found for different age groups with most associations being more pronounced in middle adulthood. The present research highlights the importance of studying grandiose narcissism as a two-dimensional construct, in populations that are diverse and representative of the broader population, and with outcomes relevant to the population studied.

Download Full-text

The Roles of Alcohol Drinking and Dietary Factors in the U-shaped Relationship Between Cigarette Smoking and Body Mass Index in Middle-aged and Elderly Chinese Rural Adults: Cross-sectional Study

10.21203/rs.2.17813/v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Da Pan ◽

Ming Su ◽

Jie Wei ◽

Kai Wang ◽

Pengfei Luo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cigarette Smoking ◽

Alcohol Drinking ◽

Rural Population ◽

Dietary Factors ◽

Middle Aged ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Elderly Chinese ◽

The Relationship ◽

Heavy Smokers ◽

Rural Adults

Abstract Background To investigate the relationship between smoking behaviour and BMI, from the perspective of the roles of alcohol drinking and dietary factors in a middle-aged and elderly Chinese rural population. Methods The authors analysed cross-sectional data from 10,837 middle-aged and elderly Chinese rural adults aged from 35 to 75 years who in 2011-2017 completed a questionnaire that included questions on demographic characteristics, dietary intake, and detailed smoking and drinking status. Results Current smokers tended to have a lower BMI and consume foods less frequently (except coriander, onion, garlic, hawthorn and fermented bean curd) than non-smokers. The relationship between smoking amount and the risk of being overweight or obese was U-shaped, and the trends were also similar by stratum of baseline age groups (all p for interaction ˂ 0.001). Heavy smokers tended to have drinking habits, whereas drinking was found to be associated with increased risk of being overweight or obese (all p for trend ˂ 0.001). In addition, despite the lower risk of being overweight or obese for current smokers, the normal weight individuals were found to have the minimum smoking amount. Conclusions This study suggests that cigarette smoking may cause suppression of appetite but smokers tend to have other unhealthy habits relating to increased body weight, and highlights that dietary factors and alcohol use play important roles in the U-shaped relationship between smoking behaviours and BMI in the middle-aged and elderly Chinese rural population. Additionally, people rarely or never smoke may be more likely to be within a normal BMI range than heavy smokers.

Download Full-text