How intensely nondaily smokers smoke in laboratory topography sessions correlates with cigarette smoking intensity in the field.

This study examines how well exposure in topography sessions correlates with exposure when smoking ad libitum in the field, by measuring material deposited on the filters of cigarettes smoked in the lab and in the field. The data were collected in a study of the effect of very low-nicotine-content versus normal-nicotine-content cigarettes in nondaily smokers. A total of 4,771 cigarette filters (323 from laboratory topography sessions, 4,448 from the field) from 123 nondaily smokers were analyzed. Optical scanning assessed density of deposits on cigarette filters, an indicator of smoke drawn through the cigarette and thus of exposure. Both during baseline, when participants smoked their own cigarettes, and during treatment, when smoking experimental cigarettes, lab and field exposure were well correlated (both rs = .62, p < .0001; r = .69, p < .0001, when analyzing all available data). Total puff volume also correlated with field exposure (p < .0001). In all analyses, exposure was slightly lower in the lab than in the field (p < .001). Exposure in laboratory topography sessions is a good indicator of exposure during ad libitum smoking in the field, both when smokers are smoking their own, varied, brands of cigarettes and when they are smoking uniform research cigarettes with very low or normal nicotine content. At least among nondaily smokers, topography measures of smokers' exposure are generalizable. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).