published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Community Medicine / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation is an empirical investigation into the roles that different quantifiable and measurable perceptions play in defining individual behavior across a variety of decision-making contexts. In particular, the focus lies on smokers and the choices they make with regard to smoking and beyond. Chapter 1 analyzes a nationally representative sample of adults (23 years and older) in the United States, pertaining to the Annenberg Perception of Tobacco Risk Survey II (1999-2000). It is observed that three dimensions to smoking behavior viz., risk, temporality and addiction, interact to determine the smoking status of an individual. Although previous studies mostly looked into each of these dimensions in isolation, in this chapter, we empirically illustrate how perceptions on risk, time dimensions and addiction, jointly influence the smoking behavior of adults. Chapter 2 casts the smoker in the role of a parent and explores parental behavior towards the general health-risks facing their children. Using the dataset from a survey (2009), conducted in Orlando, Florida, on parents, having at least one child aged between 1 and 16 years, the chapter arrives at two findings relevant for policy: i) In each of the ‗smoker‘ and ‗non-smoker‘ parent categories, parents exhibit equal concern for themselves and their children, and ii) the level of concern shown by smoker-parents, towards health-risks faced by their children, is the same as that shown by their non-smoking counterparts. The analysis in this chapter also affirms the need to incorporate subjective risk assessment in willingness-to-pay (WTP) exercises to facilitate a deeper behavioral analysis of health risk valuation. Lastly, in Chapter 3, we focus on the issue of quantitative assessment of the perception of health risks from smoking. Particular interest lies in understanding how variants of a metric - namely, a survey question - have been employed in academic studies and industry-surveys, in order to measure smoking-related risk-perceptions. In the process of reviewing select tobacco-industry survey iv records, we analyze the implications of different features of this metric, (e.g., use of a ‗probe‘, the ‗Don‘t Know‘ option), and various interview modes (e.g. telephonic, face-to-face), for the estimates of perceived risk arrived at in these studies. The review makes clear that two aspects of health risks from smoking – the risk of contracting a smoking-related disease, as against the risk of prematurely dying from it conditional upon getting affected – have not been jointly explored so far. The dataset obtained from the Family Heart Disease and Prevention Survey (November 2010-March 2011), provides a unique opportunity to explore these two kinds of probabilities, particularly with regard to the risks of lung-cancer from smoking. Chapter 3 concludes by illustrating how individuals evaluate both these aspects of health-risks. While the probability of getting lung-cancer is found to be overestimated in conjunction with previous studies, the conditional probability of premature death is severely underestimated. Additionally, it is found that individuals‘ subjective assessments of either of these risk aspects predict smoking behavior in an identical manner. This calls into question the so-called ‗rationality‘ of smoking decisions with implications for policies designed for the control of tobacco consumption.

published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

The purpose of this study was to determine whether an educational tobacco intervention impacted college students' perceptions relative to tobacco, self-efficacy, and perceived stress levels. The Health Belief Model (HBM) provided a theoretical framework to distinguish differences relative to tobacco between groups. Both the control (N=155) and intervention (N=184) group consisted of a convenience sample of students from a 2000-level health course. A pre- and post-test questionnaire was administered to both groups which included questions regarding demographics, tobacco use, HBM, self-efficacy, and perceived stress. Data analysis included frequency counts, confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and two-way ANOVA. Two-way ANOVA results indicated statistically significant differences for the Health Belief Model questions (p=0.002) and self-efficacy items (p=0.03). No statistical significance was found regarding perceived stress. These findings provide evidence an educational tobacco intervention administered at the college level can have a significant impact on students. / by Kelley E. Rhoads. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics, August 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

published_or_final_version / Pathology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1995.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1995.

The question of whether or not advertising is effective has been a topic of research for decades. More specifically, this research asks the question of advertising effectiveness regarding anti-smoking advertising by the use of a method of advertising known as ‘fear-appeal advertising’. Due to the nature of this study, attention and focus are placed on the affective and emotional aspects of this type of advertising and aims to understand the perceptions that smokers have of anti-smoking advertisements. The respondents recruited for this study all classified themselves as smokers, and were selected to form a representative sample of the South African population, ranging between the ages of 24-49 years. The perceptions of these smokers are discussed against the backdrop of literature, in an attempt to highlight the effectiveness of these advertising campaigns and ultimately suggest a way forward. The value of this exploratory study lies in its potential for generating further questions about emotions, the complexity of human health-risk behaviour and the impact that exposure to health warnings will ultimately have on future actions. / Dissertation (MA (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

The aim of this research was to demonstrate the potential of the novel pre-concentration device, capillary microextraction of volatiles (CMV), for breath analysis. The CMV offers dynamic sampling of volatile organic compounds with its simple coupling to a GC inlet for GC/MS analysis, avoiding expensive thermal desorption instrumentation needed for sorbent tubes, as well as an increased surface area over a single SPME fiber. CMV collectively identified 119 compounds in the breath of 13 self-reported smokers and 7 nonsmokers. The presence and intensity of twelve compounds were used to classify all the nonsmokers 100% of the time using Principal Component Analysis to elucidate the groupings. In some cases, nicotine was not detected in smokers and they were confused with the nonsmokers. Nicotine was detected in the breath of 69% of smokers with an average mass of 143 ± 31 pg for cigarette smokers from the approximate 5 L sample of breath collected. The successful use of the CMV sampler and preconcentration of breath to distinguish between smokers and nonsmokers served as a proof of concept for future applications of the CMV for detection of marijuana smokers’ breath for impaired driver management.