As shisha smoking is increasing globally, the need for a critical action to control shisha smoking consumption becomes crucial. Despite the success of cigarette warning labels in increasing smokers' awareness of the negative health effects of smoking and in motivating smokers to quit, nothing is known about the potential impact health warning labels may have on shisha users. The current study investigated the perception of effectiveness of text-only versus graphic warning among shisha smokers. This study sought to examine the impact of viewing health warning labels on perceived susceptibility and severity of shisha smoking health hazards, on motivating intentions to quit, and on changing the pattern of shisha smoking. Eligible participants first completed an online baseline questionnaire, and were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions:a control condition, in which they viewed nutrition labels (n=100) , or one of two experimental groups in which they viewed Text- only warning labels (n=117), or they viewed Graphic warning labels (n=125). In each of these three conditions, participants viewed six health warning labels and rated them using likert scale questions immediately following each label. Two weeks later, participants were invited to complete an online follow-up questionnaire. The findings indicate that Graphic tobacco warnings grab participants' attention and elicit unfavourable emotional reactions. Although there was a relatively little impact of viewing health warnings on subsequent shisha use, Graphic warnings significantly improved some of the participants' health knowledge .In addition, Graphic warnings significantly increased smokers' beliefs that shisha is harmful to health and dangerous to non-smokers. Patterns of the findings revealed that quit intentions were relatively higher among those who viewed Graphic warning labels. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of health warnings on shisha smokers. Overall, findings provide modest support for the efficcacy of shisha warnings on establised users. Findings imply that packaging and labelling policies for shisha and shisha products require additional development. Further examination of specific themes and contents of health warnings directed specifically to shisha smokers in different cultural settings will be critical to ensure the relevance of health warnings in distinct cultural settings.

Passive smoking has been recognised as a health hazard, and chidren are especially vulnerable. The general aim of this thesis was to describe and analyse the importance of parents’ smoking and smoking behaviour for children’s tobacco smoke exposure. The studies were conducted in the South-East part of Sweden and pre-school children and their parents constituted the study samples. Five studies are described in six papers. Smoking prevalence among parents (14%) and commonly used measures of protection were surveyed. An instrument designed to measure children’s tobacco smoke exposure in the home was developed and validated. It was used on 687 families with a smoking parent and a child 2½-3 years old, included in a prospective cohort study on environmental variables of importance for immun-mediated diseases ABIS (All Babies in South-East Sweden). Almost 60% of the parents stated that they always smoked outdoors with the door closed, 14% mixed this with smoking near the kitchen fan, 12% near an open door, 7% mixed all these behaviours and 8 % smoked indoors without precautions. The smoking behaviours were related to the children’s creatinine adjusted urine cotinine. All groups had significantly higher values than had children from non-smoking homes, controls. Outdoor smoking with the door closed seemed to be the best, though not a total, measure for tobacco smoke protection in the home. Most parents were aware of the importance of protecting children from tobacco smoke exposure but all were not convinced of the increased risk for disease for exposed children. The majority of parents were not satisfied with the smoking prevention in health-care and 50% did not think that their smoking was of any concern to the child health care nurse. Further research is warranted to describe if the difference in exposure score related to smoking behaviours is related to different prevalence of disease. Efforts are needed to convince those who still smoke indoors that tobacco smoke exposure influence children’s health and that consequent outdoor smoking with the door closed seemed to give the best protection. / Article I: copyright (2003), with permission from Oxford University Press. On the day of the public defence the status of article III was: Submitted and the status of article VI was: Revised and resubmitted and the original title was: Attitudes to children’s tobacco smoke exposure among smoking and non-smoking parents and their opinions on how the issue is handled in health care.

Le tabagisme demeure toujours la cause principale de décès prématuré évitable dans le monde menant à plus de 7 millions de décès par an. Ce comportement est particulièrement préoccupant chez les jeunes adultes, chez qui la prévalence est la plus élevée parmi tous les groupes d’âge au Canada et dans de nombreux autres pays industrialisés. Plusieurs caractéristiques de l’environnement résidentiel, notamment la présence et la densité de commerces vendant du tabac et la présence d’accommodements aux fumeurs, ont été associées à l’initiation au tabagisme, à une prévalence plus élevée du tabagisme, à moins de tentatives d’arrêt et des taux de cessation tabagique plus faibles. Cependant, les résultats de ce corpus de recherche restent contradictoires. Je propose dans cette thèse que ces résultats contradictoires sont en partie dues à 1) l’absence d’une prise en compte des différentes trajectoires de comportements tabagiques, 2) l’absence d’études des associations entre des caractéristiques environnementales spécifiques et ces trajectoires comportementales, et 3) la possibilité que ces associations soient de tailles différentes en fonction de différentes échelles spatiales. L'objectif général de cette thèse est donc d’avancer les connaissances sur les trajectoires de comportements tabagiques chez les jeunes adultes et sur leurs associations avec des caractéristiques de l'environnement résidentiel. Les objectifs spécifiques sont les suivants: 1) examiner si le tabagisme chez les jeunes adultes peut être mieux compris en examinant des trajectoires de comportements tabagiques à travers le temps, 2) examiner les associations entre ces trajectoires et des caractéristiques de l'environnement résidentiel, et 3) explorer comment ces associations peuvent varier en fonction de différentes échelles spatiales. Les données analysées proviennent du Interdisciplinary Study of Inequalities in Smoking (ISIS), une étude de cohorte de 2093 jeunes adultes âgés de 18 à 25 ans résidant à Montréal, Canada, conçue dans le but d’examiner le rôle interactif des facteurs individuels et contextuels dans la production des inégalités sociales en matière de tabagisme. Trois mesures ont été examinées: 1) trajectoires de comportements tabagiques observées rétrospectivement à deux ans d’intervalle, 2) trajectoires de comportements tabagiques observées prospectivement à deux ans d’intervalle, et 3) trajectoires de comportements tabagiques observées prospectivement à quatre ans d’intervalle. Les caractéristiques de l’environnement résidentiel ont été mesurées à partir de deux sources de données: des données obtenues par observation directe des rues où résidaient les participants et la base de données DMTI Inc. Enhanced Points of Interest©, qui fournit des informations sur un ensemble d’adresses géocodées incluant des détaillants de tabac. Des associations entre trajectoires de comportement tabagique et caractéristiques de l'environnement résidentiel ont été examinées à l'aide de modèles multiniveaux multinomiaux. Les résultats de cette thèse mettent en relief la nécessité d’examiner des différentes trajectoires de comportements tabagiques chez les jeunes adultes et comment ces trajectoires peuvent être associées à des caractéristiques spécifiques des environnements résidentiels. Plus précisément, ces résultats mettent en évidence le rôle potentiel d’une plus grande présence et d’une plus grande densité locale et proximale de détaillants de tabac dans l’exacerbation de la variabilité dans les comportements tabagiques dans ce groupe d’âge, ainsi que dans la reconduction du statut de fumeur chez les fumeurs plus expérimentés. En outre, les résultats mettent en exergue l’influence potentielle d’une plus grande présence régionale d’accommodements aux fumeurs sur la persistance de trajectoires de tabagisme néfastes pour la santé. Finalement, la présence d'associations à des échelles spécifiques suggère que des processus liant ces caractéristiques et différentes trajectoires de comportements tabagiques peuvent opérer à différentes échelles spatiales. Cette thèse contribue à la littérature sur les environnements résidentiels et le tabagisme en démontrant la valeur ajoutée d’examiner des trajectoires de comportements tabagiques et de la manière dont ceux-ci peuvent être influencés par des caractéristiques de l'environnement résidentiel. Cette recherche souligne la nécessité d'élargir l'examen des mesures du tabagisme afin d'inclure des trajectoires de comportements distincts qui intègrent l'évolution de la consommation de tabac au fil du temps et la manière dont ces trajectoires peuvent être associées aux caractéristiques de l'environnement résidentiel. En outre, ces résultats mettent en relief l’importance de l’examen de différentes définitions spatiales pour faire progresser les connaissances concernant les échelles auxquelles ces caractéristiques peuvent exercer une influence plus marquée sur les trajectoires de comportements tabagiques. Pris ensemble, ces résultats peuvent aider à orienter la recherche et les interventions en santé publique visant à réduire le tabagisme chez les jeunes adultes en identifiant des trajectoires de comportements tabagiques spécifiques et des caractéristiques environnementales pouvant jouer un rôle important dans leur formation, ainsi que les échelles géographiques auxquelles les processus reliant les patrons et caractéristiques des environnements résidentiels peuvent opérer. Des recherches futures dans ce domaine devraient continuer à examiner l'influence des caractéristiques environnementales sur les trajectoires de comportements tabagiques ainsi que d'autres comportements de santé, non seulement chez les jeunes adultes, mais potentiellement dans d'autres populations. / Smoking continues to be the leading cause of preventable premature death worldwide, accounting for more than 7 million deaths per year. Tobacco use is of particular concern among young adults, who have the highest prevalence of smoking of all age groups in Canada and many other developed nations. Several residential environment features, including the presence and density of tobacco retail and the presence of smoker accommodation facilities have been found to be associated with smoking initiation, prevalence, quit attempts and cessation rates. However, findings from this research continue to be inconsistent. I propose in this dissertation that these inconsistencies are partly due to 1) a lack of consideration of the different smoking behaviour patterns that young adults may go through, 2) the paucity of research examining associations between these patterns and specific residential environment characteristics, and 3) the potential for these associations to be stronger at different spatial scales. The overarching aim of this dissertation is to advance knowledge regarding smoking behaviour patterns among young adults and their association with residential environment features. The specific objectives are: 1) to examine whether smoking behaviour in young adults can be better understood by examining smoking behaviour patterns over time, 2) to examine associations between these patterns and residential environment features, and 3) to explore how these associations may vary in terms of presence and strength across different spatial scales. Data stem from the Interdisciplinary Study of Inequalities in Smoking (ISIS), a cohort study of 2093 young adults aged 18 to 25 years at baseline residing in Montreal, Canada, conceived with the objective of examining the interactive role of individual and contextual factors in the production of social inequalities in smoking. Three different measures were examined: 1) retrospective 2-year smoking behaviour patterns, 2) prospective 2-year smoking behaviour patterns, and 3) prospective 4-year smoking behaviour patterns. Residential environment features were measured based on two sources: data obtained through direct observation of the street blocks where participants resided, and DMTI Inc.’s Enhanced Points of Interest Database©, which provides a collection of geocoded address points including tobacco retail stores. Associations between smoking behaviour patterns and residential environment features were tested using multilevel multinomial models. Findings from this dissertation highlight the need to examine distinct smoking behaviour patterns among young adults and how they may be associated with specific features of residential environments. Specifically, these results suggest a potential role of a greater proximal and local presence and density of tobacco retail in exacerbating variable smoking patterns in this age group as well as in sustaining tobacco use among persistent smokers. Moreover, they highlight the potential influence of a greater regional presence of smoker accommodation facilities on persistent smoking patterns. Finally, the presence of scale-specific associations suggests that processes linking these features and distinct smoking patterns may operate at different spatial scales. This thesis contributes to the literature on residential environments and smoking by underscoring the added value of examining distinct smoking behaviour patterns and how these may be influenced by residential environment features. This research highlights the need to extend the examination of smoking outcomes to include distinct behavioural patterns that delve into how tobacco use may progress over time and how these patterns may be associated with residential environment features. Furthermore, these results highlight the importance of examining different spatial definitions to advance knowledge concerning the scales at which these features may exert a stronger influence on smoking behaviour patterns. Taken together, these findings can help orient public health research and intervention seeking to curb smoking among young adults by identifying specific smoking patterns and the environmental features that may play an important role in shaping them, as well as the geographic scales at which processes linking patterns and features may operate. Future research in this area should continue to examine how environmental features may influence smoking and other health behaviour patterns not only in young adults but potentially in other populations.