[Improved product characteristics of nicotine gums: an unexplored area for higher compliance with nicotine replacement therapy]. / Verbesserte Produktmerkmale der Nikotinkaugummis. Ein unerforschter Bereich zur Erhöhung der Compliance bei der Nikotinersatztherapie.

OBJECTIVE: To assess consumer acceptance of new flavoured nicotine gums in comparison with existing nicotinegums. METHOD: A total of 607 adult smokers who intended to cut down or give up smoking were included in two randomised, single-blind, central location, acceptance tests. A new fruit-flavoured nicotine gum (Gum A = Nicorette Freshfruit) was compared with an existing fruit-flavoured nicotine gum (Gum B = Nicotinell fruit), and a new menthol-flavoured gum (Gum N = Nicorette Icy White) was compared with two existing mint-flavoured gums (Gum M = Nicotinell mint; Gum Q = NiQuitin mint). For all gums, the nicotine 2 mg and 4 mg strengths were tested. Each subject compared two of the nicotine gums, either 2 mg or 4 mg and either fruit-flavoured or menthol/ mint-flavoured, and assessed several characteristics, including sweetness, flavour, crunchiness, and overall liking, at predefined intervals. RESULTS: For the fruit-flavoured gums the percentage of subjects who rated sweetness and flavour to be "just right"after 5 minutes of chewing was significantly higher for Gum A than for Gum B at both strengths. Comparison of the mint/menthol-flavoured gums revealed significantly superior ratings for Gum N over both Gum M and Gum Q. With regard to expectations of which gum would be more likely help quit smoking, significantly more participants expressed greater confidence in Gum A than Gum B for the fruit-flavoured gums. Similarly, for the mint/menthol-flavoured gums significantly more subjects had greater confidence in Gum N than Gum Mor Gum Q. CONCLUSIONS: Product characteristics of nicotine gums, such as crunchiness, sweetness and flavour, appear to be crucial for the expectations that smokers have in the likelihood that any particular nicotine gum will help them to quit smoking. Thus, improved organoleptic characteristics of nicotine gums may lead to higher compliance, resulting in higher plasma nicotine levels and thereby in a higher quit rate.

Actuarial assessment of sex offender recidivism risk: a cross-validation of the RRASOR and the Static-99 in Sweden.

We cross-validated two actuarial risk assessment tools, the RRASOR (R. K. Hanson, 1997) and the Static-99 (R. K. Hanson & D. Thornton, 1999), in a retrospective follow-up (mean follow-up time = 3.69 years) of all sex offenders released from Swedish prisons during 1993-1997 (N = 1,400, all men, age > or =18 years). File-based data were collected by a researcher blind to the outcome (registered criminal recidivism), and individual risk factors as well as complete instrument characteristics were explored. Both the RRASOR and the Static-99 showed similar and moderate predictive accuracy for sexual reconvictions whereas the Static-99 exhibited a significantly higher accuracy for the prediction of any violent recidivism as compared to the RRASOR. Although particularly the Static-99 proved moderately robust as an actuarial measure of recidivism risk among sexual offenders in Sweden, both procedures may need further evaluation, for example, with sex offender subpopulations differing ethnically or with respect to offense characteristics. The usefulness of actuarial methods for the assessment of sex offender recidivism risk is discussed in the context of current practice.