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Aims: This paper presents updated prevalence estimates of awareness, ever‐use, and current use of nicotine vaping products (NVPs) from 14 International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project) countries that have varying regulations governing NVP sales and marketing. Design, Setting, Participants and Measurements: A cross‐sectional analysis of adult (≥ 18 years) current smokers and ex‐smokers from 14 countries participating in the ITC Project. Data from the most recent survey questionnaire for each country were included, which spanned the period 2013–17. Countries were categorized into four groups based on regulations governing NVP sales and marketing (allowable or not), and level of enforcement (strict or weak where NVPs are not permitted to be sold): (1) most restrictive policies (MRPs), not legal to be sold or marketed with strict enforcement: Australia, Brazil, Uruguay; (2) restrictive policies (RPs), not approved for sale or marketing with weak enforcement: Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand; (3) less restrictive policies (LRPs), legal to be sold and marketed with regulations: England, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, United States; and (4) no regulatory policies (NRPs), Bangladesh, China, Zambia. Countries were also grouped by World Bank Income Classifications. Country‐specific weighted logistic regression models estimated adjusted NVP prevalence estimates for: awareness, ever/current use, and frequency of use (daily versus non‐daily). Findings NVP awareness and use were lowest in NRP countries. Generally, ever‐ and current use of NVPs were lower in MRP countries (ever‐use = 7.1–48.9%; current use = 0.3–3.5%) relative to LRP countries (ever‐use = 38.9–66.6%; current use = 5.5–17.2%) and RP countries (ever‐use = 10.0–62.4%; current use = 1.4–15.5%). NVP use was highest among high‐income countries, followed by upper–middle‐income countries, and then by lower–middle‐income countries. Conclusions: With a few exceptions, awareness and use of nicotine vaping products varied by the strength of national regulations governing nicotine vaping product sales/marketing, and by country income. In countries with no regulatory policies, use rates were very low, suggesting that there was little availability, marketing and/or interest in nicotine vaping products in these countries where smoking populations are predominantly poorer. The higher awareness and use of nicotine vaping products in high income countries with moderately (e.g. Canada, New Zealand) and less (e.g. England, United States) restrictive policies, is likely due to the greater availability and affordability of nicotine vaping products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION The aim was to evaluate the association between secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure and abnormal cervical cytology among Chinese adult women. METHODS A one-to-one matched case-control study was conducted with outpatients of the First Hospital of Jilin University between October 2013 to September 2016. In all, 228 cytologic confirmed new cases of abnormal cervical cytology and the equivalent number of age and ethnic matched controls were interviewed about SHS exposure and related factors. RESULTS Although 78.3% of all the participants had been exposed to SHS (78.1% subjects vs 78.5% controls), there were no statistical significance of cervical cytological abnormalities and SHS exposure status (never, former, current exposure), exposure intensity in cigarettes per day (none, 1-9, 10-19, and >20), SHS exposure duration in years (none, 1-9, 10-19, and >20) and the Brinkman Index (BI) (none, 1-99, 100-399, >400) between the two groups. The univariate analysis results showed that there were statistical differences between subjects and controls in marital status, sexual frequency in past year, number of sexual partners, age at first intercourse, age at first delivery. The stratified Cox regression model only showed that the age at first sexual intercourse was associated with the cervical cytological abnormalities (0R=1.206, 95% CI: 1.104-1.319). CONCLUSIONS Studies on the association between SHS exposure and cervical lesions have been equivocal. In this study, the SHS exposure could not be detected as an independent risk factor of abnormal cervical cytology among Chinese adult women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Smoking exerts substantial medical burdens on society. Precise estimation of the smoking-attributable medical expenditures (SAME) helps to inform tobacco control policy makers. Based on the epidemiological approach, prior studies in China only focused on a few smoking-related diseases to estimate SAME. In contrast, this study used the econometric approach, which is capable of capturing all of the potential costs.Methods: Three waves of panel data from the 2011-2015 national China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) were used. A total of 34,503 observations aged 45 and above were identified. Estimates from econometric models were combined to predict the smoking-attributable fraction (SAF) and medical expenditures attributable to smoking by sex, registered residency and healthcare service categories. All monetary amounts were adjusted to 2015 dollars.Results: In 2015, the overall smoking-attributable fraction (SAF) of China was 10.97%, ranging from 5.77% for self-medication to 16.87% for inpatient visits. The smoking-attributable medical expenditure (SAME) was about $45.28 billion, accounting for 7.24% of the total health expenditure. The SAME was $226.77 per smoker aged 45 and above. The regression results suggest that being a former smoker has the greatest impact, which decreases over time after quitting however, on the value of medical expenditures.Conclusions: Smoking-attributable medical expenditures was substantial and placed a heavy burden on Chinese society. Comprehensive tobacco control policies and regulations are still needed to promote progress toward curbing the tobacco related losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]