Chaffee Benjamin W, Dutra Lauren M, Donaldson Candice D, Couch Elizabeth T, Farooq Omara, Zhang Xueying, Gansky Stuart A
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California San Francisco, 530 Parnassus Avenue, Suite 366 Library, San Francisco, CA, USA 94143.
Division of Oral Epidemiology and Dental Public Health, University of California San Francisco, 707 Parnassus Avenue, D3214 Box 0758, San Francisco, CA, USA 94143.
Int J Soc Res Methodol. 2025;28(2):257-262. doi: 10.1080/13645579.2024.2320144. Epub 2024 Feb 20.
Having ever used tobacco is a key surveillance metric. Existing tobacco use survey items differ in their inclusion of minimal use language, such as "even one or two puffs." This study aimed to quantify how minimal use language affects tobacco ever use prevalence estimated from adolescent surveys. Participants (N=5127) in the 2022 Teens, Nicotine, and Tobacco Project online panel survey of California adolescents (ages 12-17) were randomized to one of two differently worded ever use survey items (i.e., with or without minimal use language) for eight different tobacco products independently. For seven of the eight products (except hookah), minimal use language resulted in numerically higher ever use prevalence estimates. Averaged across all products, ever use prevalence was 0.7-percentage points higher when items included minimal use language (95% CI: 0.1, 1.4). Findings suggest that minimal use language yields modestly higher tobacco use prevalence, with implications for comparing and interpretating surveillance data.
曾经使用过烟草是一项关键的监测指标。现有的烟草使用调查项目在是否纳入诸如“哪怕只吸了一两口”这样的微量使用表述方面存在差异。本研究旨在量化微量使用表述如何影响从青少年调查中估算出的曾经使用烟草的流行率。参与2022年加利福尼亚青少年（12至17岁）尼古丁与烟草项目在线小组调查的参与者（N = 5127）被随机分配到针对八种不同烟草产品的两种措辞不同的曾经使用调查项目之一（即有或没有微量使用表述）。对于八种产品中的七种（水烟除外），微量使用表述在数值上导致曾经使用流行率的估算值更高。在所有产品中进行平均计算，当项目包含微量使用表述时，曾经使用流行率高出0.7个百分点（95%置信区间：0.1, 1.4）。研究结果表明，微量使用表述会使烟草使用流行率略高，这对比较和解释监测数据具有启示意义。
