title: Heterogeneity among adolescent non-daily smokers: implications for research and practice.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Preventive Oncology, Cancer Care, Ontario, Toronto, Canada. scott.leatherdale@cancercare.on.ca
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Leatherdale
authors.forename: Rashid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lovato
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Manske
authors.forename: Mari Alice
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Jolin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D015995:Prevalence; D012106:Research; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*