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UCSF TCORS: Smokeless Tobacco Use among Rural High School Males and Resulting Nicotine and Carcinogen Exposure

Principal Investigator: Margaret Walsh

Funding Mechanism: National Institutes of Health- TCORS Grant

ID number: 1P50CA180890-01

Award Date: 9/19/2013

Institution: University of California San Francisco

Smokeless tobacco (ST) use among US high school students is much higher among males and is especially high in rural areas. Data regarding the addictive potential and nicotine and carcinogen exposure in adolescents using new ST products alone or in dual use with cigarettes is needed. This clustered longitudinal observational study of 1000 rural adolescent male baseball athletes will use web-based surveys and saliva specimen analysis to provide information about the cognitive and social determinants of use (and non-use) of conventional ST products, new ST products (e.g., snus, dissolvables), dual use with cigarettes, and use of other alternative products (e.g., e-cigarettes, cigarillos, hookah/waterpipe). In addition, the impact of exposure to marketing and anti-tobacco messages (e.g. graphic warning labels) on risk and benefit perceptions, change in ST use status (i.e., experimentation, initiation, relapse, switching, and cessation) and actual exposure to nicotine and carcinogens will be evaluated over time. Specific aims are: (1) to measure patterns and determinants of conventional and new ST product use and dual/poly use with cigarettes over time; (2) to measure exposure to tobacco marketing and anti-tobacco messages and their association with ST use, perceived risks and benefits of use, and future expectations of ST and dual/poly use over time; (3) to use existing and new biomarkers to evaluate nicotine and carcinogen exposure and their association with nicotine metabolism rate in ST and dual users; and (4) to identify factors in addition to product type and brand that predict nicotine and carcinogen exposure (e.g., measures of risk and benefit perception, nicotine metabolism rate). This study will enhance the understanding of the relationship of marketing exposure to risk and benefit perceptions, tobacco use status, and intentions to use conventional and new ST products and their dual use with cigarettes in a population at high risk of use.

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