Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Smoking Cessation in Arkansas, 2014.

OBJECTIVES: As of October 2015, evidence needed to make a recommendation about the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) for smoking cessation was limited. We used the 2014 Arkansas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System with additional state-specific questions to determine the prevalence of ENDS use, the impact of ENDS use on smoking cessation, and beliefs about ENDS use in Arkansas. Our objectives were to determine if (1) ENDS use was associated with lower odds of quitting smoking, (2) ENDS users believed that ENDS use was not harmful to their health, and (3) ENDS users believed that switching to ENDS reduced their tobacco-related health risks. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 4465 respondents to the Arkansas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and used weighted analyses to account for the complex survey design. We used a subset of records formed by (1) formers smokers who quitted smoking in the last 5 years and (2) current smokers to assess the odds of quitting. RESULTS: In 2014, 6.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.0%-7.4%) of Arkansas adults were currently using ENDS. Of the 1083 participants who were current smokers or had quit smoking within the past 5 years, 515 (54.1%) had used ENDS. Of the 515 ENDS users, 404 (80.3%) had continued smoking. ENDS use was significantly associated with reduced odds of quitting smoking (weighted odds ratio = 0.53; 95% CI, 0.34-0.83). Although 2437 of 3808 participants (62.5%) believed that it was harmful for nonsmokers to start using ENDS and 1793 of 3658 participants (47.0%) believed that switching to ENDS did not reduce tobacco-related health risks, only 80 of 165 (41.3%) and 50 of 168 (33.9%) ENDS users shared these same respective beliefs. CONCLUSIONS: Most smokers who indicated smoking in the past 5 years and who tried ENDS did not stop smoking. ENDS use was inversely associated with smoking cessation. Tobacco cessation programs should tell cigarette smokers that ENDS use may not help them quit smoking.

Television watching during lunch increases afternoon snack intake of young women.

Eating while watching television has been shown to increase food intake in part due to the distracting effects of television viewing. It is also known that enhancing memory for the specific attributes of foods eaten in the recent past decreases subsequent food intake. Because distraction at the time of encoding interferes with memory formation, we predicted that television watching during lunch would increase afternoon snack intake due to impaired memory for recent eating. Using a repeated-measures design, 16 young women undergraduate students visited the laboratory to eat a fixed lunch either while watching television or in the absence of television. Intake of cookies at a tasting session later that afternoon was measured and participants recalled eating the lunch and rated the memory for vividness. All participants ate all of the lunch and rated appetite during lunch did not differ according to condition. Participants ate significantly more cookies after they had eaten their lunch while watching television than when they had eaten their lunch while not watching television and this effect could not be attributed to an effect of television watching on rated mood or appetite before the snack session. Watching television while eating lunch was also associated with reduced vividness ratings of the memory of the lunch. These results suggest that the effects of television watching on food intake extend beyond the time of television watching to affect subsequent consumption. They further suggest that this effect may be related to an effect of television watching on encoding of the memory of the meal.