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Data sharing is essential for reproducibility of epidemiologic research, replication of findings, pooled analyses in consortia efforts, and maximizing study value to address multiple research questions. However, barriers related to confidentiality, costs, and incentives often limit the extent and speed of data sharing. Epidemiological practices that follow Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) principles can address these barriers by making data resources findable with the necessary metadata, accessible to authorized users, and interoperable with other data, to optimize the reuse of resources with appropriate credit to its creators. We provide an overview of these principles and describe approaches for implementation in epidemiology. Increasing degrees of FAIRness can be achieved by moving data and code from on-site locations to remote, accessible ("Cloud") data servers, using machine-readable and nonproprietary files, and developing open-source code. Adoption of these practices will improve daily work and collaborative analyses and facilitate compliance with data sharing policies from funders and scientific journals. Achieving a high degree of FAIRness will require funding, training, organizational support, recognition, and incentives for sharing research resources, both data and code. However, these costs are outweighed by the benefits of making research more reproducible, impactful, and equitable by facilitating the reuse of precious research resources by the scientific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of adults in the United States use more than 1 tobacco product. Most use cigarettes in combination with other tobacco products. However, little is known about the all-cause and cancer-specific mortality risks of dual– and poly–tobacco-product use. We examined these associations by pooling nationally representative data from the 1991, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2005, and 2010 National Health Interview Surveys (n = 118,144). Mortality information was obtained through linkage to the National Death Index. Cigarette smokers who additionally used other tobacco products smoked as many if not more cigarettes per day than exclusive cigarette smokers. Furthermore, cigarette smokers who additionally used other tobacco products had mortality risks that were as high as and sometimes higher than those of exclusive cigarette smokers. As tobacco use patterns continue to change and diversify, investigators in future studies need to carefully assess the impact of noncigarette tobacco products on cigarette use and determine associated disease risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many smokers do not quit but instead reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke per day (CPD) over their lifetime. Yet the associations of such changes in CPD with health risks are unclear. We examined the association of changes in CPD with subsequent death in the period 2004–2011 among 253,947 participants of the National Institutes of Health–AARP Diet and Health Study. Using a questionnaire assessing responders' history of smoking cigarettes, we identified cigarette smokers who quit, decreased, maintained, or increased their CPD between ages 25–29 and 50–59 years. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were obtained from multivariable adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models. Relative to never smokers, smokers who maintained a consistent CPD had 2.93 times (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.82, 3.05) higher all-cause mortality risk, and participants who increased their CPD had still higher risk (hazard ratio (HR) = 3.37, 95% CI: 3.23, 3.52). Death risk was lower among participants who decreased their CPD (HR = 2.38, 95% CI: 2.25, 2.52) or quit smoking (for quitting between ages 30 and 39 years, HR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.39). Similar patterns were observed for smoking-related causes of death, with particularly strong associations for lung cancer and respiratory disease. Reductions in CPD over the lifetime meaningfully decreased death risk; however, cessation provided a larger benefit than even large declines in CPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]