About the Project
Rationale: The latent class model is a statistical model for the identification of subgroups in a population. In the context of cigarette smoking, these latent classes could correspond to different patterns of smoking or types of smokers. These different smoking patterns may not only provide an important description of smoking within priority populations, but they may also be important in understanding other smoking related behavior, for example identity and perceived need for treatment or cessation.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate and identify smoking patterns across several priority populations by conducting latent class analysis on data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2003—2005. Latent class analysis will be run separately for groups defined by race/ethnicity, gender and age. Results from this study will be a significant improvement beyond simply saying that members of a particular group smoke less than some other group. Rather, smoking history and current smoking information will be used to characterize common patterns of use (e.g., heavy smoking versus light and intermittent smoking) within priority populations. Small sample sizes will be addressed by pooling respondents in the same demographic groups across adjacent years (e.g., all non-Hispanic Black women between 18 and 25 from 2003 through 2005 surveys) and determining the appropriateness of this pooling strategy by assessing trends in smoking patterns for the parallel White group and identifying any broader, societal-level changes in smoking patterns across the years. A further approach to addressing small sample sizes in these models is to reduce the size of the model by using appropriate parameter restrictions. Once the classes are identified for each demographic group, we will also examine relations between class membership and other variables such as education, age of first cigarette, type of cigarettes smoked, and items designed to measure nicotine dependence.
Impact: Results from this study will increase our understanding of the various smoking patterns among priority populations, and thus, will help inform the development and implementation of more appropriately tailored prevention and cessation programs rather than applying a "one size fits all" approach. TReND’s investigators will disseminate the study findings through peer-reviewed journal publications and presentations at major professional conferences.
Resources and Publications
Flaherty, B. P. (2002). Assessing the reliability of categorical substance use items with latent class analysis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 68S, 7–20.
Research Team
Brian Flaherty, PhD (Principal Investigator)
University of Washington
Dennis R. Trinidad, PhD, MPH
Claremont Graduate University
Donna Vallone, PhD, MPH
American Legacy Foundation
K. Vish Viswanath, PhD
Harvard School of Public Health
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Contact Us
Principal Investigator:
Brian Flaherty, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
University of Washington
bxf4@u.washington.edu
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