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Responds to J.R. Hughes' rebuttal of the authors' editorial regarding the effectiveness of over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy. Summary of points of agreement between Hughes and the authors; Restatement of the central argument of the editorial; Critique of four studies identified by Hughes in support of his arguments; Points of difference between Hughes' and the authors' arguments.

The article presents a study which examined the validity of self-reported smoking among women hospital staff in Tunisia. It states that despite the prevalence of smoking in Tunisia, under-reporting of smoking could occur especially among women from cultures where social proscriptions exist. It mentions that the validity of self-reported smoking was the same among subjects from different areas, ages and occupational groups.

Introduction: Understanding the characteristics of smokers who enroll in a trial of quitline support and those who decline could guide recruitment approaches and service delivery to better engage smokers and increase successful quitting. However, it is unknown whether factors such as smokers’ perceived effectiveness of using quitting aids or self-exempting beliefs are associated with quitline uptake. We compared the sociodemographic characteristics, smoking behaviours, perceived effectiveness of using quitting aids, and self-exempting beliefs of participants and nonparticipants who were actively telephoned and offered quitline support as part of a randomized controlled trial. Methods: Overall, 48,014 telephone numbers were randomly selected from the electronic telephone directory and contacted. A total of 3,008 eligible smokers were identified and invited to participate in a trial of quitline support. Consenting trial participants (n = 1,562) and nonparticipants (n = 500) completed a baseline interview. Results: Multivariate analysis showed that the following factors were associated with trial participation: consumption of 21 or more cigarettes per day (odds ratio [OR] = 1.45 [1.07–1.99]), readiness to quit within 30 days (OR = 4.45 [3.20–6.19]) or 6 months (OR = 3.22 [2.46–4.23]), perceiving that calling the quitline was definitely (OR = 2.34 [1.62–3.39]) or partly effective (OR = 2.15 [1.63–2.83]), believing that using self-help materials was partly effective (OR = 1.50 [1.16–1.94]), thinking that nicotine replacement therapy was partly effective (OR = 1.38 [1.04–1.84]), perceiving that using willpower alone was partly (OR = 1.99 [1.48–2.67]) or not effective (OR = 2.60 [1.95–3.46]), and not holding a self-exempting belief (OR = 1.45 [1.11–1.89]). Conclusions: Increasing smokers’ utilization of quitlines is likely to require changing their perceptions of the effectiveness of quitting strategies compared with using willpower alone and addressing self-exempting beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Adolescence and young adulthood isa time of risky health behaviour initiation and experimentation. Smoking, risky drinking, poor nutrition and physical activity, and a lack of sun protection behaviour, often become established in early adulthood. Levels of health risk behaviours occurring amongst tertiary education and training students and their preferences for types of on-campus health promotion programs were examined. Method: A cross-sectional pen-and-paper classroom survey was conducted at one Sydney-based TAFE New South Wales Institute campus in May 2010.The survey assessed demographics, smoking, alcohol use, sun protection, nutrition, physical activity and health promotion program preferences. Results: Two hundred and twenty-four students participated (97% consent); the majority were aged 16-24 years (59%) and female (51%). Current smoking (35%), risky drinking (49%) and inadequate physical activity (88%) rates were high. Adequate vegetable intake (3.6%) and sun protection behaviours (5.4%) were low and 33% of students were overweight or obese. Popular health promotion programs included food and activity subsidies, practical skills classes and social outings. Conclusion: Participation in health risk behaviours among this sample was high. The setting of tertiary education and workplace training represents an opportunity for early intervention into risky health behaviours among young people. So what? This study is the first to provide information on the prevalence of health risk behaviours and preferences for types of health promoting programs among students of an Australian community college. The results show that young adults regularly participate in multiple health risk behaviours, such as smoking, drinking, poor nutrition, physical activity and lack of sun protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Only 1%–7% of smokers use quitlines annually. Active telephone recruitment (“cold calling”) can enroll about 50% of community smokers to quitline services. However, whether cold-called smokers’ characteristics differ from traditional quitline clients is unknown. To assess whether active telephone recruitment reaches new groups of smokers, New South Wales (NSW) Quitline callers were compared with cold-called smokers who received telephone counseling as part of a randomized controlled trial. Methods: Data were extracted from the NSW Quitline database from September 13, 2005, to April 10, 2007, to coincide with the trial’s recruitment period. Records (n = 18,584) of first-time quitline callers, who smoked daily, resided in NSW, Australia, and received telephone counseling were included. Cold-called participants who received telephone counseling (n = 695) were recruited by telephone from the electronic NSW telephone directory. Eligibility requirements were daily tobacco use, aged 18 or older, NSW resident, and English speaking. Smokers were eligible regardless of their quitting intention. Results: Male smokers, older age groups, those living in nonmetropolitan areas, smokers who took longer to smoke their first cigarette after waking, consumed fewer cigarettes per day, and were less motivated to quit had greater odds of being referred to the quitline through cold calling. Conclusions: Active telephone recruitment enrolls new groups of smokers to quitlines. The reach of quitlines could be improved if quitlines incorporated cold calling into their recruitment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Issue Addressed: Little research has examined issues surrounding employee smoking outside smoke-free workplaces. The study's aims were to: 1) document the proportion of NSW indoor employees covered by total workplace smoking bans; 2) examine community perceptions of employee smoking during working hours; 3) identify the characteristics of having a supportive attitude toward tobacco control in the workplace; and 4) describe relationships between smoking relapse and workplace-related smoking.Methods: Two cross-sectional, computer-assisted telephone interview surveys of randomly selected adults were conducted. Consent rates were 49.1% in 2004 and 45.8% in 2006, with sample sizes of 1,158 and 2,393 respectively.Results: Total workplace bans were reported by 92.9% of indoor employees. Community attitudes to smoking in working hours were highly negative: 77.7% agreed smoking breaks waste too much time and 85.1% opposed smoking near workplace doorways. Being female, born in Australia and a non-smoker were associated with more negative attitudes. A higher proportion of smokers (78.3%) perceived smoking was more common outside their place of work or study than at five other locations: rail/bus stop (60.2%), friends' houses (59.3%), own street (35.2%), parks (34.3%), and outside school (22.6%). Of smokers making a quit attempt in the past year, 42.1% relapsed at home, 22.1% at licensed premises and 18.7% at work.Conclusions: Findings emphasise the low support for smoking during or near work. Smoking outside workplaces is highly visible. Data on relapse suggest a modest relationship with workplace-related smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the impact on hospital admissions produced by trees and other falling objects, to examine these accidents' circumstances, and to investigate the degree of support provided by the data for tree-related accident prevention., Methods: Admissions to emergency departments in the Hunter Region for the period 2008-2012 allocated the International Classification of Disease 10 code W20 (struck by falling object) were analysed., Results: Of 620 admissions, 125 files were incorrectly coded leaving an eligible sample of 495 W20 admissions. Males made up 79.4% of admissions. Where recorded, the commonest accident locations were workplaces (63.2%) and homes (31.5%). Trees/branches caused only 24 (4.8%) of such accidents with an age-adjusted admission rate of 0.28 per 10,000 people compared with 6.84 per 10,000 for all falling objects combined. Most tree-related admissions (at least 62.5%) occurred to persons actively interacting with the tree. Being male (p=0.04) and living in an outer regional area (p=0.001) increased the incidence of tree injuries., Conclusions: Hospital admissions caused by falling objects especially trees are uncommon. Implications for public health: It is difficult to justify any major health promotion expenditure to reduce tree-related accidents, given their especial rarity. Any funds allocated should focus on preventing falling object injuries in workplaces and homes., (© 2016 Public Health Association of Australia.)