Heterogeneity among adolescent non-daily smokers: implications for research and practice.
Cluster analysis modeling was used to identify distinct smoking taxonomies among 4,473 smokers from 29 secondary schools (2000-2001) in Ontario, Canada. Analyses revealed a two-cluster solution (4,349 [97.2%] situational smokers and 124 [2.8%] ubiquitous smokers). Different psychosocial characteristics influenced the smoking behavior of these unique groups. Our findings are substantially different from the traditional definitions for non-daily and daily smoking used in the literature, which typically impose rules about smoking frequency or volume when defining smoking status. These findings suggest that more robust taxonomies of youth smoking are required in future tobacco control research. The study's limitations are noted.
Leatherdale
Scott T
ST
Division of Preventive Oncology, Cancer Care, Ontario, Toronto, Canada. scott.leatherdale@cancercare.on.ca
Ahmed
Rashid
R
Lovato
Chris
C
Manske
Steve
S
Jolin
Mari Alice
MA
D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D015995:Prevalence; D012106:Research; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*