Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 21, Issue 2, March–April 1996, Pages 233-238
Addictive Behaviors

Brief report
Smoking topography in tobacco chippers and dependent smokers

https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4603(95)00054-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Although most cigarette smokers exhibit signs of tobacco dependence, a subset of this population, referred to as tobacco chippers, does not show characteristic signs of dependence. Few studies have attempted to characterize differences between these groups of smokers. The purpose of the present study was to examine smoking topography in chippers (CH) and dependent smokers (DS). Topographical variables including puff number and duration, and intercigarette interval were examined in seven CH and seven DS under both laboratory and naturalistic conditions. Saliva nicotine, cotinine, and thiocyanate, as well as expired air carbon monoxide (CO) levels were also measured. The results indicate that there were no differences in smoking topography between CH and DS, except those that would be expected based on selection criteria. Although there were differences between groups on pre- and postsmoking CO and saliva cotinine levels, there were no differences in change scores from pre- to postsmoking on these measures. Additional studies will need to be done in order to completely characterize differences between CH and DS.

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    Smoking topography studies provide useful information on the relationship between smoking behavior and smoking cessation, and topography has been measured in settings outside of the laboratory. Prior work has examined smoking topography in the real world to determine differences in smoking patterns among groups of people (e.g., chippers vs dependent smokers; Brauer, 1996; Korean American vs White men; Chung et al., 2015). Research has also shown that self-reported cigarettes smoked per day were not associated with smoking topography patterns in day-to-day life (Hatsukami, Morgan, & Pickens, 1987).

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This work was conducted at the University of Minnesota Tobacco Research Laboratory and funded by R01 DA02988.

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