title: An Association between Emotional Responsiveness and Smoking Behavior.
abstract: Introduction. Emotional responsiveness (ER) has been theorized to play a protective role in pathways to tobacco initiation, regular use, and dependence, yet a possible association between ER and smoking behavior has not been studied. Our aim was to test whether measuring ER to a neutral stimulus was associated with decreased odds of current smoking. Methods. We measured ER and smoking status (current, former, and never) in two datasets: a cross-sectional dataset of persons with diabetes (n = 127) and a prospective dataset of depressed patients (n = 107) from an urban primary care system. Because there were few former smokers in the datasets, smoking status was dichotomized (current versus former/never) and measured at baseline (cross-sectional dataset) or at 36 weeks after-baseline (prospective dataset). ER was ascertained with response to a neutral facial expression (any ER versus none). Results. Compared to their nonresponsive counterparts, adjusted odds of current smoking were lower among participants endorsing emotional responsiveness in both the cross-sectional and prospective datasets (ORs = .29 and .32, P's <.02, resp.). Discussion. ER may be protective against current smoking behavior. Further research investigating the association between ER and decreased smoking may hold potential to inform treatment approaches to improve smoking prevalence.
authors.affiliation: Division of Community Health Services, Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, CO 80204, USA ; Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Center, Aurora, CO 80045-0508, USA.
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Keeley
authors.affiliation: Driscoll Consulting, 866 Paragon Dr., Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Driscoll