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Background Measuring self-reported experience of health and functioning is important for understanding the changes in the health status of individuals switching from cigarettes to less harmful tobacco and/or nicotine products (TNP) or reduced-risk products (RRP) and for supporting tobacco harm reduction strategies. Methods This paper presents insights from three research activities from the preparatory phase of the development of a new self-report health and functioning measure. A scoping literature review was conducted to identify the positive and negative impact of TNP use on health and functioning. Focus groups (n = 29) on risk perception and individual interviews (n = 40) on perceived dependence in people who use TNPs were reanalyzed in the context of health and functioning, and expert opinion was gathered from five key opinion leaders and five technical consultants. Results Triangulating the findings of the review of 97 articles, qualitative input from people who use TNPs, and expert feedback helped generate a preliminary conceptual framework including health and functioning and conceptually-related domains impacted by TNP use. Domains related to the future health and functioning measurement model include physical health signs and symptoms, general physical appearance, functioning (physical, sexual, cognitive, emotional, and social), and general health perceptions. Conclusions This preliminary conceptual framework can inform future research on development and validation of new measures for assessment of overall health and functioning impact of TNPs from the consumers’ perspective.

Measurement in the social sciences has been characterized by deficient justification and underdeveloped conceptual theories. Instruments supposed to measure the same measurand typically do not provide comparable measurements. From the perspective of metrological traceability, the state of affairs has thus been unsatisfactory. Today, better instruments can be developed as psychometrics provides tools for invariant measurement (Rasch measurement theory), where measurements are justifiable, linear, and sample-independent. Different instruments can be linked to a common metric of the measurand by means of co-calibration of item parameters. Such linkages, referred to as crosswalks, are an important and practically useful contribution to traceability, when common references have not been developed, yet. The measurement of dependence on tobacco and/or nicotine-containing products through self-report instruments illustrates the limitations of traditional measurement, how they can be overcome by new instrument development, and how a network of crosswalks with existing legacy instruments can be established.

Background: This was a pre-market, observational, actual use study with the Tobacco Heating System (THS), a candidate modified risk tobacco product. The main goal of the study was to describe THS adoption within current adult daily smokers by replicating the usage of THS in real-world conditions with participants being able to consume cigarettes, THS, and any other nicotine-containing products (e.g., e-cigarettes, cigars, etc.) ad libitum. Methods: This study assessed self-reported stick-by-stick consumption of THS compared with the use of commercial cigarettes over six weeks. The aim of the analysis was to identify potential predictors for adoption of THS using stepwise logistic regression analysis. Results: By the end of the observational period (in Week 6), 14.6% of participants (n=965) had adopted THS meaning that THS formed 70% or more of their total tobacco consumption. The main predictors of adoption were the liking of the smell, taste, aftertaste, and ease of use of THS. The proportion of adoption was higher in participants aged 44 years and older and in Hispanic or Latino adult smokers. Additionally, adoption of THS was more likely in participants who had never attempted to quit smoking and in participants who smoked up to 10 cigarettes per day. Finally, the adoption of THS was higher in participants who consumed both regular and menthol THS compared with those who consumed only one THS variant. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the introduction of THS in the U.S. has the potential to result in adoption by current adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke cigarettes, and that the adoption of THS is unlikely to result in an increase of tobacco consumption. Post-marketing studies will provide further insights on THS adoption and THS use patterns to allow assessment of the impact of the THS at the individual and the overall population level.

Background Making tobacco products associated with lower risks available to smokers who would otherwise continue smoking is recognized as an important strategy towards addressing smoking-related harm. Predicting use behavior is an important major component of product risk assessment. In this context, risk perception is a possible factor driving tobacco product uptake and use. As prior to market launch real-world actual product use cannot be observed, assessing risk perception can provide predictive information. Considering the lack of suitable validated self-report instruments, the development of a new instrument was undertaken to quantify perceived risks of tobacco and nicotine-containing products by adult smokers, former smokers and never-smokers. Methods Initial items were constructed based on a literature review, focus groups and expert opinion. Data for scale formation and assessment were obtained through two successive US-based web surveys (n = 2020 and 1640 completers, respectively). Psychometric evaluation was based on Rasch Measurement Theory and Classical Test Theory. Results Psychometric evaluation supported the formation of an 18-item Perceived Health Risk scale and a 7-item Perceived Addiction Risk scale: item response option thresholds were ordered correctly for all items; item locations in each scale were spread out (coverage range 75–87%); scale reliability was supported by high person separation indices > 0.93, Cronbach’s alpha > 0.98 and Corrected Item-Total Correlations > 0.88; and no differential item functioning was present. Construct validity evaluations met expectations through inter-scale correlations and findings from known-group comparisons. Conclusions The Perceived Risk Instrument is a psychometrically robust instrument applicable for general and personal risk perception measurement, for use in different types of products (including cigarettes, nicotine replacement therapy, potential Modified Risk Tobacco Products), and for different smoking status groups (i.e., current smokers with and without intention to quit, former smokers, never smokers).

Pleasantness, familiarity, and intensity are 3 interdependent dimensions commonly used to describe the perceived qualities of an odor. In particular, many empirical studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between familiarity and pleasantness. However, on the basis of both theoretical and methodological perspectives, we questioned the validity of such a relation for malodors. We report 2 studies based on subjective judgments of a large sample of odorants (Experiment 1) associated with autonomic recordings (Experiment 2). Multivariate exploratory analysis performed on the data splits the whole odorant set into 2 subsets composed, respectively, of unpleasant and pleasant odorants. Subsequent correlation analyses have shown that the relation between pleasantness and familiarity is specific for the pleasant odors in the 2 experiments. Moreover, autonomic activity was more important in response to malodors than to pleasant odors and was significantly correlated with unpleasantness ratings in the subset of unpleasant odors. These 2 studies argue in favor of a functional dissociation in the relations between both subjective and autonomic responses to odors as a function of pleasantness and indicate that researchers in the olfactory domain should consider the relations between pleasantness and familiarity as more complex than linear.

Background: Several instruments are widely used for assessing dependence, craving, withdrawal symptoms, and reinforcing effects in users of tobacco- and nicotine-containing products (TNP), including the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), Questionnaire of Smoking Urges, original (QSU) and brief (QSU-b) versions; Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale, original (MNWS) and revised (MNWS-R) versions; and Cigarette Evaluation Questionnaire, original (CEQ) and modified (mCEQ) versions. Although these instruments have been translated extensively, their translations and corresponding measurement properties have not been systematically assessed. This study aimed to (1) identify the translations of these instruments for which psychometric properties have been published, (2) describe the methods used for translation, and (3) describe the measurement properties and the context in which these translations were evaluated (e.g., target population and TNP used). Methods: Embase and MEDLINE databases were systematically searched. Results: While no information could be found for the CEQ/mCEQ, several translations were available for the remaining instruments: FTND, 25; QSU and QSU-b, 4 each; QSU (12-item version), 1; MNWS, 4; and MNWS-R, 1. Cigarette smokers represented the main target population in which the validation studies were conducted. Information about the translation process was reported for 25 translations. In most cases, the properties of the translations mirrored those of the originals. Differential item functioning was explored in only one case. Conclusions: There are few publications describing the measurement properties of the translations of the FTND, QSU/QSU-b, and MNWS/MNWS-R. None of these translations have been validated for TNPs other than cigarettes, which suggests the need for greater development and validation of instruments in this area.

Measurement in the social sciences is characterised by a multitude of incompatible paradigms, most of which fail to adhere to fundamental principles of measurement explicated in metrology. This has led to a fragmentation of instruments that are hard to interpret and lack a common reference. Rasch measurement theory, the metrological framework of the Rasch model, combined with strong substantive theories of the measurand, has the potential to advance measurement in the social sciences significantly. The Rasch model establishes a reference standard with a common unit of measurement against which different instruments can be calibrated ensuring traceability in social measurement. Uncertainty in the calibration process is addressed by a standard error of measurement for a specific estimate taking into account that precision varies over the continuum of the measurand. A strong substantive theory of the measurand allows for concrete predictions that can be tested empirically with positive evidence supporting accuracy. We exemplify the potential of the Rasch model by developing the ABOUT-Dependence, a new instrument for the measurement of dependence on tobacco- and nicotine-containing products (TNP). The instrument provides comparable measurements of dependence on different TNPs as well as dependence on multiple TNPs used concurrently. A co-calibration of the new instrument and existing, product-specific instruments allows for a conversion of scores of existing instruments into scores on the new instrument, and vice versa, via the established equal-unit reference scale. The score comparability adds to traceability in the measurement of dependence, is likely to facilitate the acceptance of the new instrument, and helps avoid a discontinuity in the research of dependence.

The investigation of the semantic space associated with subjective affective experiences or feelings linked to odour perception has recently emerged. Because of the specificity of the emotional effects of odours, the terms derived from traditional models of emotion are unlikely to optimally account for odour-associated feelings. In this study, sets of terms derived from two traditional models, basic emotions and valence by arousal by dominance dimensional emotions, were compared with a recently elaborated olfaction-specific set of terms (Geneva Emotion and Odour Scale; GEOS). Three main criteria were considered: (1) the feeling's intensity reported in response to odours; (2) the inter-rater agreement concerning the reported feelings; and (3) the power to discriminate feelings evoked by various odorous substances. The evidence strongly suggested that the set of terms proposed by GEOS outperformed the terms derived from the two classical models in measuring the subjective affective experience elicited by odours. These results are interpreted with respect to a good correspondence between the functions of olfaction and the meaning conveyed by GEOS terms.

The Geneva Emotion and Odor Scale (GEOS) was developed to measure the subjective affective experience (i.e., feeling) elicited by everyday odors. This study aimed to adapt the GEOS to commercial and development needs and had a threefold objective: (i) to verify whether the number of measurement terms in the GEOS questionnaire could be reduced; (ii) to investigate the suitability of this new questionnaire to differentiate the feelings evoked by the odors of different fragranced and flavored products; and (iii) to verify whether the measurement of feelings with this tool could add information to more traditional consumer liking measures. The original and modified questionnaires yielded comparable results for different shampoos. Results of characterizing various product categories with the new questionnaire indicated that it is relevant to differentiate the feelings evoked by odors from fragranced and flavored products, which can be perceptually distinct or similar. In addition, the verbal measurement of feelings provides insight into consumer liking, improving the discrimination of products that have similar liking scores.

We investigated the effects of odors on appraisal processes and consequent emotional responses. The main goal was to test whether an odor is detected as novel or familiar before it is evaluated as pleasant or unpleasant. Participants performed a recognition task in which they were presented with pairs of unpleasant or pleasant odors (sample and target odors). Within a pair, the sample and target were either identical or different to assess participants' novelty detection; unpleasant and pleasant target odors were contrasted to examine participants' appraisal of intrinsic pleasantness. We measured facial expressions using electromyography and physiological reactions using electrocardiogram and electrodermal activity in response to odors. The earliest effects on facial muscles and heart rate occurred in response to novelty detection. Later effects on facial muscles and heart rate were related to pleasantness evaluation. This study is the first to demonstrate the existence of a sequence of appraisal checks for odors eliciting emotional reaction.

The existence of graded structure in fruit and flower odour categories and its stability in different cultures is examined. Groups of students from France, the United States, and Vietnam performed a typicality rating task, a similarity judgment task, a membership verification task, a recognition memory task, a familiarity rating task, and a free identification task using a set of 40 odorants (20 fruit odorants and 20 flower odorants). Overall, our results demonstrate that fruit and flower odour categories possess graded structure. Moreover, principal component analyses of the data revealed the implication of typicality in a variety of cognitive tasks where typical odours receive a preferential processing compared to atypical ones. Finally, our results suggest that typicality can be predicted to a certain extent by experiential knowledge but that other determinants play a role in odour category structure. Altogether, this study confirms that graded structure is a universal property of categories and suggests that universals and cultural specifics can both constrain the emergence of odour category structures.

In this paper we present a new method called distatis that can be applied to the analysis of sorting data. D istatis is a generalization of classical multidimensional scaling which allows one to analyze 3-ways distance tables. When used for analyzing sorting tasks, distatis takes into account individual sorting data. Specifically, when distatis is used to analyze the results of an experiment in which several assessors sort a set of products, we obtain two types of maps: One for the assessors and one for the products. In these maps, the proximity between two points reflects their similarity, and therefore these maps can be read using the same rules as standard metric multidimensional scaling methods or principal component analysis. Technically, distatis starts by transforming the individual sorting data into cross-product matrices as in classical mds and evaluating the similarity between these matrices (using Escoufier’s R V coefficient). Then it computes a compromise matrix which is the best aggregate (in the least square sense, as statis does) of the individual cross-product matrices and analyzes it with pca . The individual matrices are then projected onto the compromise space. In this paper, we present a short tutorial, and we illustrate how to use distatis with a sorting task in which ten assessors evaluated eight beers. We also provide some insights into how distatis evaluates the similarity between assessors.

This study investigated odor-category organization in three cultures by evaluating (i) the relationship between linguistic and perceptual categorization and (ii) the existence of an internal structure of odor categories. In the first experiment, three groups of 30 participants from American, French and Vietnamese cultures performed a sorting task. The first group sorted 40 odorants on the basis of odor similarity, the second group sorted 40 odor names on the basis of name similarity and the last group sorted 40 odor names on the basis of imagined odor similarity. Results showed that odor categorization was based on perceptual or conceptual similarity and was in part independent of word and imagined categorizations. In the second experiment, another group of 30 participants from each culture rated the typicality of the odorants for 11 odor categories. Results showed that some odorants were rated as more typical than others. Moreover, the typicality gradient predicted the odor space obtained in the odor sorting task in a consensual way among the three cultures. These results suggest that, as for other categories, odor categories are based on perceptual similarities rather than on semantic cues. Moreover odor-category structure might have a core representation which might be common to different cultures with boundaries which might be more culturally dependent.

Two studies were conducted to examine the nature of the verbal labels that describe emotional effects elicited by odors. In Study 1, a list of terms selected for their relevance to describe affective feelings induced by odors was assessed while participants were exposed to a set of odorant samples. The data were submitted to a series of exploratory factor analyses to 1) reduce the set of variables to a smaller set of summary scales and 2) get a preliminary sense of the differentiation of affective feelings elicited by odors. The goal of Study 2 was to replicate the findings of Study 1 with a larger sample of odorant samples and participants and to validate the preliminary model obtained in Study 1 by using confirmatory factor analysis. Overall, the findings point to a structure of affective responses to odors that differs from the classical taxonomies of emotion such as posited by discrete or bidimensional emotion theories. These findings suggest that the subjective affective experiences or feelings induced by odors are structured around a small group of dimensions that reflect the role of olfaction in well-being, social interaction, danger prevention, arousal or relaxation sensations, and conscious recollection of emotional memories.

The sense of smell plays a major role in food flavour perception: Individuals who loose their sense of smell often report that food has no taste anymore. Yet, from a neuroanatomical point of view taste and smell are very different senses. Taste is perceived primarily on the tongue whereas odours are perceived in the upper part of the nasal cavity either directly or via the back of the mouth. But does this neuroanatomical dissociation imply that taste and odour perception are independent? Probably not! Indeed, information coming from the gustatory and the olfactory systems are likely to be combined at a higher level of processing in the brain to give rise to a unique perception referred to as ”flavour” (1), (28). The question thus is: What is the nature of this combination? Is it an additive combination whereby taste and odour perception are simply added to form an overall perception or can we observe interactions between taste and odours? In this context, taste odour interaction refers to a modification in perceived taste intensity in the presence of an odour. For example, a sweet solution will taste sweeter in the presence of a vanilla aroma even though the vanilla aroma possesses no taste properties. The aim of this chapter is to examine whether such interactions exist for sweet taste perception. We begin with an overview of the literature on the effect of odour

This study evaluated the effect of culture on the relationship between psychological dimensions underlying odor perception and odor categorization. In a first experiment, French, Vietnamese and American participants rated several perceptual dimensions of everyday odorants, and sorted these odorants on the basis of their similarity. Results showed that the three groups of participants differed in their perceptual judgments but agreed in categorizing the odors into four consensual groups (floral, sweet, bad, and nature). Three dimensions––pleasantness, edibility, cosmetic acceptability––discriminated these groups in the same way in the three countries. In a second experiment, the participants sorted only fruit and flower odors to evaluate whether a consensus emerges at a finer level. Results showed that French and American participants clearly separated fruit from flower odors whereas this separation was nonexistent for Vietnamese participants. This difference could arise from cultural differences in odor functions. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nous avons étudié la relation entre la codabilité des odeurs et leur représentation en mémoire dans trois groupes culturels, français, américain et vietnamien. Dans une première expérience, nous avons demandé à des participants des trois cultures d’identifier par deux fois un ensemble de 40 odorants. A partir de cette tâche, nous avons calculé la codabilité de chacun des 40 odorants. Dans une deuxième expérience, nous avons demandé à un autre groupe de participants de chaque culture de réaliser une tâche de reconnaissance par oui/non sur le même ensemble d’odorants. Les résultats de l’expérience 1 suggèrent que la codabilité des odeurs (1) est une dimension pertinente car certaines odeurs sont plus codables que d’autres au sein d’une même culture, (2) peut être mesurée de manière équivalente par des indices d’accords intra et interpersonnels, et (3) varie entre les cultures en fonction de l’environnement olfactif et de la structure du langage. Les résultats de l’expérience 2 montrent que les scores de codabilité en France prédisent les performances de mémoire de reconnaissance dans les trois cultures mais que les scores aux Etats-Unis et au Vietnam n’en prédisent aucun des scores de reconnaissances. We investigated the relationship between odor codability and odor memory representation in three cultural groups: French, American, and Vietnamese. In a first experiment, we asked participants from the three cultures to identify twice a set of 40 common odorants. From this task, we computed the codability of each of the 40 odorants. In a second experiment, we asked another group of participants from each culture to perform a yes/no recognition task on the same set of odorants. Results from Experiment 1 suggest that odor codability (1) is a meaningful dimension because some odors are more codable than others within a culture, (2) is equivalently measurable by several inter- and intrapersonal agreement indices, and (3) varies between cultures as a function of both the olfactory environment and language structure. Results from Experiment 2 show that the French codability scores predict recognition memory performance in all three cultures but that the American and Vietnamese codability scores predict none of the recognition performances.