Papers by Roberta Ferrence
Journal of Food Science and Nutrition
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Preventive Medicine Reports
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Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, Jan 27, 2018
There are a limited number of studies that have examined the real-world effectiveness of smoking ... more There are a limited number of studies that have examined the real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids and relapse longitudinally in population-representative samples. This study examines the association between use of nicotine gum, patch, bupropion, and varenicline and time to relapse as well as any changes in the association with increased length of abstinence. Data of 1821 current adult smokers (18+) making their first serious quit attempt were compiled from 4504 individuals enrolled in the Ontario Tobacco Survey, a representative telephone survey of Ontario adults, which followed smokers every 6 months for up to 3 years. Use of cessation aids at the time of initial report of a quit attempt was analyzed. A flexible parametric survival model was developed to model length of abstinence, controlling for potential confounders. The best fit model found knots at 3, 13, 43, and 212 days abstinent, suggesting different rates of relapse in the periods marked by those days. Use of...
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Preventive medicine reports, 2018
This paper investigates the impacts of smoke-free housing policies on compliance, enforcement and... more This paper investigates the impacts of smoke-free housing policies on compliance, enforcement and smoking behavior. From 2012 to 2014, we studied two affordable housing providers in Canada with comprehensive smoke-free policies: Waterloo Regional Housing that required new leases to be non-smoking and exempted existing leases, and Yukon Housing Corporation that required all leases (existing and new) to be non-smoking. Focus groups and key informant interviews were conducted with 31 housing and public health staff involved in policy development and implementation, and qualitative interviews with 56 tenants. Both types of smoke-free policies helped tenants to reduce and quit smoking. However, exempting existing tenants from the policy created challenges for monitoring compliance and enforcing the policy, and resulted in ongoing tobacco smoke exposure. Moreover, some new tenants were smoking in exempted units, which undermined the policy and maintained smoking behavior. Our findings sup...
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Traffic injury prevention, Jan 19, 2018
Although most research on drugs and driving has focused on the use of alcohol and cannabis, resea... more Although most research on drugs and driving has focused on the use of alcohol and cannabis, research that has been conducted on cigarette smoking and collisions has found that smokers have an increased collision involvement. Studies dating from 1967 through 2013 have shown a crude relative risk of about 1.5 among smokers compared to nonsmokers. In Canada, the association between smoking and collisions has not been recently investigated. Studies that have examined the association between smoking and collisions often did not control for all confounding factors, such as alcohol use and driving exposure, which have been associated with increased collision rates. Additionally, a number of these studies were examined in countries and at times when prevalence of smoking was much higher than is currently the case in Canada. The purpose of this research is to examine the association between self-reported current smoking and past-year collision involvement, controlling for confounding factors...
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Contemporary Drug Problems
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Contemporary Drug Problems
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Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante, 2017
Insurance coverage for evidence-based smoking cessation treatments (SCTs) promotes uptake and red... more Insurance coverage for evidence-based smoking cessation treatments (SCTs) promotes uptake and reduces smoking rates. Published studies in this area are based in the US where employers are the primary source of health insurance. In Ontario, Canada, publicly funded healthcare does not cover SCTs, but it can be supplemented with employer-sponsored benefit plans. This study explores factors affecting the inclusion/exclusion of smoking cessation (SC) benefits. In total, 17 interviews were conducted with eight employers (auto, retail, banking, municipal and university industries), four health insurers, two government representatives and three advisors/consultants. Overall, SCT coverage varied among industries; it was inconsistently restrictive and SCT differed by coverage amount and length of use. Barriers impeding coverage included the lack of the following: Canadian-specific return on investment (ROI), SC cost information, employer demand, government regulations/incentives and employee ...
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Contemporary Drug Problems, 1994
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Preventive medicine, Oct 2, 2016
The mediating role of cessation medications in the association between health professional advice... more The mediating role of cessation medications in the association between health professional advice and quitting behaviors is unclear. Data were from the Ontario Tobacco Survey longitudinal study, collected between July 2005 and June 2011 in Ontario, Canada. The analytic sample included 3437 baseline smokers who were seen by health professionals during follow-up. Logistic regression with generalized estimating equations and mediation analysis techniques were used to examine the impact of advice and medications on quitting outcomes (making a quit attempt, short-term quitting 1-6months and long-term quitting>6months). Those who received advice to quit smoking were more likely to use cessation medications than those who did not receive advice (21% vs. 13%, P<0.001). Receiving advice was associated with making a quit attempt (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10-1.41) and long-term quitting (adjusted OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.10-2.02), but not with short-term qui...
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ABSTRACT Most reports of relapse and quitting among smokers come from clinical observations or cr... more ABSTRACT Most reports of relapse and quitting among smokers come from clinical observations or cross-sectional studies. We explored the natural history of quitting in a population-representative cohort of smokers. Data from 2370 current adult smokers (18+) making their first serious quit attempt were compiled from the Ontario Tobacco Survey, a representative telephone survey of Ontario adults which followed smokers every six months for up to three years. Life tables were constructed to estimate length of continuous abstinence. The median length of a serious quit attempt was 7 days. By two years after a quit attempt, 91% had reported smoking again. Among respondents who were able to abstain for at least 30 days, 25% were still abstinent after two years. Among those who had not smoked by one year, 76% were abstinent after two. Older smokers (45+) were less likely than younger smokers (18 45) to maintain abstinence up to two years (7.7 % vs. 9.4%, respectively). While 19% of occasional smokers maintained abstinence after a quit attempt, only 7% of baseline daily smokers continued not to smoke. This study is one of few reports of long-term quitting in a population-representative sample and demonstrates that the likelihood of continuous abstinence increases with the duration of a quit attempt. A substantial number of people, however, return to smoking even after a year of continuous abstinence. Understanding relapse is important in developing successful smoking cessation interventions that engage participants for longer periods, at the population level.
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Drug Forum the Journal of Human Issues, 1978
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Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, May 1, 2009
To evaluate the impact of an indoor smoke-free bylaw in Toronto, Ontario, implemented June 2004. ... more To evaluate the impact of an indoor smoke-free bylaw in Toronto, Ontario, implemented June 2004. We used a pre-post comparison design to assess secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among 79 eligible bar workers in Toronto, Ontario (bylaw enacted), and 49 eligible bar workers in a control community, Windsor, Ontario (no bylaw change), at four times: preban, and 1, 2, and 9 months postban. SHS exposure time and urinary cotinine level were substantially reduced in Toronto bar workers immediately after the ban by 94% (from 7.8 to 0.5 hours) and 68% (from 24.2 to 7.8 ng/mL), respectively. The reduction was sustained throughout follow-up. There was no change among Windsor bar workers before and after the ban. Compliance with the ban was high, and the ban led to a substantial reduction in SHS exposure.
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Annals of Epidemiology, Jan 4, 2005
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The efficacy of using secondary and tertiary prevention approaches for drug overdosage has been q... more The efficacy of using secondary and tertiary prevention approaches for drug overdosage has been questioned. This paper examines new approaches that are required and the manner in which they can be implemented as part of a public policy that emphasizes primary prevention. Rather than viewing self-injury as a manifestation of individual pathology, we need to focus on the role of acceptability and availability of drugs in the use and misuse of psychoactive substances. The potential utility of such a model is extrapolated from previous research on alcohol, and alternative plans are outlined.
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Canadian Family Physician Medecin De Famille Canadien, Feb 1, 2010
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Papers by Roberta Ferrence