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Significance: People with HIV (PWH) who smoke cigarettes have lower cessation rates than the general population. This study investigated whether changes in cannabis use frequency impedes cigarette cessation among PWH who are motivated to quit., Methods: Between 2016-2020, PWH who smoked cigarettes were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial for cigarette cessation. Analyses were limited to PWH who reported on their past 30-day (P30D) cannabis use during four study visits (baseline, 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month) (N=374). Descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression were used to evaluate changes in cannabis use frequency from baseline to 6 months and associations with cigarette abstinence at 6 months among PWH who reported no use during all four visits (n=176), as well as those who reported use during at least one visit and who increased (n=39), decreased (n=78), or had no change (n=81) in use frequency., Results: Among those who reported cannabis use during at least one visit (n=198), at baseline, 18.2% reported no use. At 6 months, 34.3% reported no use. Controlling for covariates, increased cannabis use frequency from baseline was associated with reduced odds of cigarette abstinence at 6 months versus decreased use frequency (aOR=0.22, 95% CI=0.03, 0.90) or no use at either time-point (aOR=0.25, 95% CI=0.04, 0.93)., Conclusions: Increased cannabis use over 6 months was associated with reduced odds of cigarette smoking abstinence among PWH who were motivated to quit. Additional factors that influence cannabis use and cigarette cessation simultaneously are in need of further study., Competing Interests: Dr. Shuter has received financial payments for the development of educational materials and delivering oral presentations from the Northeast/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center and from the ObG Project. All other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Significance: Determining if tobacco-related biomarkers of exposure (BOE) are associated with respiratory symptoms is an important public health tool that can be used to evaluate the potential harm of different tobacco products., Methods: Adult data from people who exclusively smoked cigarettes (N = 2,438) in Waves 1-4 (2013-2017) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study were stacked to examine associations between baseline and follow-up within wave pairs (W1-W2, W2-W3, W3-W4). Weighted generalized estimating equation models were used to evaluate associations between biomarkers of nicotine, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, acrolein, acrylonitrile, cadmium, and lead at baseline/follow-up and respiratory symptom(s) (wheezing/whistling in the chest, wheezing during exercise, and/or dry cough in the past 12 months) at follow-up., Results: Higher acrolein metabolite (CEMA) levels at follow-up were associated with increased odds of respiratory symptoms at follow-up for people who exclusively smoked cigarettes (aOR = 1.34; 95% CI = 1.06, 1.70), including when limited to those without a diagnosed respiratory disease (aOR = 1.46; 95% CI = 1.12, 1.90) and those who smoked daily (aOR = 1.40; 95% CI = 1.06, 1.84). Higher cadmium levels at baseline (while controlling for follow-up levels) were associated with reduced odds of respiratory symptoms at follow-up (aOR = 0.80; 95% CI = 0.65, 0.98) among people who exclusively smoked cigarettes without a respiratory disease. There were no significant associations between baseline/follow-up BOE and follow-up respiratory symptoms for people who smoked cigarettes non-daily., Conclusions: This research supports measuring biomarkers of acrolein, such as CEMA, as a potential intermediate measurement for increased respiratory symptom development. Measuring these biomarkers could help alleviate the clinical burden of respiratory disease., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Author(s).)

Tobacco use is now a leading cause of death in people living with HIV in the USA. Increasing cessation rates in this group is a public health priority, yet the results of clinical trials aimed at optimising tobacco treatment strategies have been largely disappointing. Combinations of behavioural and pharmacological cessation therapies in people living with HIV have yielded increases in short-term quit rates, but few have shown long-term efficacy. Even with aggressive therapy combining intensive behavioural treatment with pharmacological agents, most smokers living with HIV continue to smoke. The generalised approach to tobacco treatment that prevails in guidelines and in clinical practices might do a disservice to these individuals, who represent a sizable segment of the population of people living with HIV. Harm reduction is a sensible and needed approach for smokers living with HIV who are unable or unwilling to quit. In this Viewpoint, we take an expansive view of harm reduction to include not only cutting down on cigarette intake for persistent smokers, but also reducing smoking's downstream health effects by increasing lung cancer screening and by controlling concurrent cardiovascular risk factors, especially hypertension and hyperlipidaemia., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests NAR has served as a consultant to Achieve Life Sciences regarding an investigational smoking cessation medication (cytisinicline). She is the principal investigator of a multicentre trial of the medication that is sponsored by Achieve Life Sciences, and her institution, the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA, USA), receives research funding to serve as a site for the trial. NAR also receives royalties from UpToDate for authoring the section on smoking cessation. All other authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)