Longitudinal cohorts of smokers need to be followed over time to determine the health risks for light and intermittent smokers who may have stable or unstable patterns of light and intermittent smoking and transitions to heavier or lighter smoking. Few such analyses exist, and this issue highlights several papers that address this Tenatoprazole? important question. White, Bray, Fleming, and Catalano analyzed a large cohort of adolescents who were followed into early adulthood. They found that nonsmoking and heavy smoking were relatively stable behaviors but that light and intermittent smoking was not. Only 31% of light and intermittent smokers in the 10th grade were still in this category 4 years later. Levy, Biener, and Rigotti followed a population-based cohort of adults more than 4 years to identify transitions and predictors of change.

Although light smoking (��10 cigarettes daily) was a much less stable pattern than heavier smoking, only a minority of light smokers progressed to heavier smoking more than 4 years; light smokers who increased consumption were more likely to exhibit signs of nicotine addiction and to be in a social environment conducive to smoking. For the very lightest smokers (��5 cigarettes daily), the frequency of smoking was the major predictor of progression; very light daily smokers were more likely to progress to higher levels of cigarette consumption than were intermittent smokers. In a third paper, Fagan, Rubenstone, Zhang, and Brooks found that Black and Puerto Rican youth’s maladaptive characteristics and light smoking in adolescence predicted light smoking in young adulthood.

Pierce, White, and Messer analyzed four waves of the TUS-CPS to examine population trends in the prevalence of very light smoking (<5 cigarettes/day) over a decade. Smoking prevalence declined at all levels of cigarette consumption among Americans aged 30 years or more, but among young adults (18�C29 years), light and intermittent smoking increased. Their analysis also demonstrated an association between tobacco control policies and light and intermittent smoking. Smokers who lived in a smoke-free home or in a state with stronger tobacco control policies had higher odds of being light smokers. Among young adults, the increase in light smoking was mediated by the increase in smoke-free homes.

Nguyen and Zhu analyzed data from the California Tobacco Survey to explore how transitions from daily to nondaily smoking might occur among young adults. They found that former-daily and never-daily intermittent smokers were Dacomitinib similar with regard to situations in which they will smoke, suggesting that some daily smokers are able to control their use of the addictive substance nicotine. Nicotine dependence Two studies using different methods examined the relationship between measures of cigarette consumption and nicotine dependence in different subgroups of light smokers.