Joint Effects of Parental Smoking Cessation and an Antismoking Parenting Program on Children's Susceptibility to Smoking: A Three-Year Prospective Study.

Cognitive susceptibility to smoking is indicated by positive social expectancies about smoking, being curious about smoking, wanting to try smoking, and intending to try smoking. Among children, cognitive susceptibility is a risk factor for initiating smoking; reducing susceptibility is, therefore, a viable primary prevention strategy. Our study tested prospectively the combined effect of two variables-parental modeling of smoking cessation and parental exposure to an antismoking parenting program-on cognitive susceptibility to smoking among children who had never puffed on a cigarette. The study sample comprised 859 daily smokers who called a state Quitline seeking assistance to quit smoking and these adults' 8- to 10-year-old children. The factors in the 2 × 2 design were parental modeling of cessation (successful cessation vs. continued smoking) and parental exposure to an antismoking parenting program (program vs. control). We hypothesized that children whose parents both quit smoking and received the antismoking parenting program would report lower susceptibility to smoking than children exposed to one or neither of these factors. Multivariable analysis of variance, conducted using child-reported susceptibility to smoking collected 12, 24, and 36 months post-baseline, confirmed this hypothesis. Post hoc tests for simple main effects showed that, at each time point, parent smoking cessation had a significant protective effect on children's susceptibility to smoking, but only among children whose parents received the parenting program. These tests also showed that the parenting program had a significant protective effect on children's susceptibility to smoking, but only among children whose parents had successfully quit smoking. Our study results suggest that Quitlines and other programs that assist adults in quitting smoking could extend the reach and benefits of such assistance by providing parents with resources that promote antismoking parenting practices.

Providing Antismoking Socialization to Children After Quitting Smoking: Does It Help Parents Stay Quit?

PURPOSE: To test whether an antismoking parenting program provided to parents who had quit smoking for ≥24 hours increased parents' likelihood of remaining abstinent 2 and 3 years postbaseline. DESIGN: Two-group randomized controlled trial with 3-year follow-up. SETTING: Eleven states (Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont). PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred seventy-seven adults (286 treatment and 291 control) who had smoked ≥10 cigarettes daily at baseline, had quit smoking for ≥24 hours after calling a Quitline, and were parents of an 8- to 10-year-old child; 358 (62%) completed the 2-year follow-up interview, and 304 (53%) completed the 3-year follow-up interview. INTERVENTION: Theory-driven, home-based, self-help parenting program. MEASURES: Sociodemographic, smoking history, and 30-day point prevalence. ANALYSIS: Multivariable regression analyses tested for group differences in 30-day abstinence. Attriters were coded as having relapsed. RESULTS: Between-group differences in abstinence rates were 5.6% and 5.9% at 2 and 3 years, respectively. Treatment group parents had greater odds of abstinence, an effect that was significant only at the latter time point (odds ratio [OR] = 1.49, P = .075 at 2 years; OR = 1.70, P = .026 at 3 years). CONCLUSIONS: This study obtained preliminary evidence that engaging parents who recently quit smoking as agents of antismoking socialization of children has the potential to reduce the long-term odds of relapse.

Bioassays for monitoring insecticide resistance.

Pest resistance to pesticides is an increasing problem because pesticides are an integral part of high-yielding production agriculture. When few products are labeled for an individual pest within a particular crop system, chemical control options are limited. Therefore, the same product(s) are used repeatedly and continual selection pressure is placed on the target pest. There are both financial and environmental costs associated with the development of resistant populations. The cost of pesticide resistance has been estimated at approximately $ 1.5 billion annually in the United States. This paper will describe protocols, currently used to monitor arthropod (specifically insects) populations for the development of resistance. The adult vial test is used to measure the toxicity to contact insecticides and a modification of this test is used for plant-systemic insecticides. In these bioassays, insects are exposed to technical grade insecticide and responses (mortality) recorded at a specific post-exposure interval. The mortality data are subjected to Log Dose probit analysis to generate estimates of a lethal concentration that provides mortality to 50% (LC(50) of the target populations and a series of confidence limits (CL's) as estimates of data variability. When these data are collected for a range of insecticide-susceptible populations, the LC(50) can be used as baseline data for future monitoring purposes. After populations have been exposed to products, the results can be compared to a previously determined LC(50) using the same methodology.