2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Online Program

330104
Using a Social Prioritization Index to Predict Young Adult Smoking


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Nadra Lisha, Ph.D., Department of General and Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Torsten Neilands, PhD, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Jeffrey W. Jordan, MA, Creative Department, Rescue, San Diego, CA
Louisa Holmes, PhD, Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Pamela Ling, MD MPH, Department of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Background: Young adults continue to use tobacco at high rates, and one reason for use may be for social benefits.  The Social Prioritization Index (SPI) was developed to identify young adults who place a high priority on their social lives. This study determined the utility of this measure to predict tobacco use independently of demographic variables, and other smoking-related attitudes.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey data was collected from 2012 through 2014 from young adults attending bars in 7 cities (N = 5,503). The SPI is a 12-item index which includes personality descriptors (“Up for anything/picks and chooses what to do” and “Plan it out/wing it”) and measures of how frequently respondents attend bars, and how late they stay out.

Results: In a series of regressions we found (1) bivariate analyses showed that the SPI was correlated with smoking status (2) the SPI was a significant predictor of smoking independent of demographic correlates and (3) the SPI predicted smoking independent of attitudinal variables known to predict smoking. The SPI was related to being a smoker (OR = 1.10, 95%CI = 1.06, 1.15, p <.0001) compared to non-smoker, and to non-daily (OR = 1.15, 95%CI = 1.07, 1.23, p <.0001) and daily-smoking (OR = 1.09, 95%CI = 1.04, 1.14, p <.001) compared to non-smoking.

Conclusions: The SPI is independently associated with tobacco use, controlling for demographic and attitudinal factors that predict smoking.  The scale is easy to complete and may allow public health programs to more efficiently identify those at high-risk for smoking.

Learning Areas:

Epidemiology
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate how a new measure, the Social Prioritization Index (SPI), can be used to identify young adult smokers in addition to demographic or attitudinal factors. Discuss how the SPI may facilitate more effective tailoring of prevention and cessation efforts for young adults.

Keyword(s): Tobacco Use, Epidemiology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I received my Ph.D. in 2012 in Health Behavior Research from USC. I have been working in drug prevention and cessation for approximately 10 years. I am currently working on a large anti-tobacco study at UCSF as the statistician.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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