Research

Purpose: To examine if perceived harm moderates the relation between grade level and past 30-day use of electronic cigarettes for a nationally representative sample of youth in the United States. Design: Secondary data analysis of the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS); a cross-sectional survey. Setting: Youth in the United States. Participants: A nationally representative sample of the students in private and public schools, grades 6^th-12^th, collected via online questionnaire that included 341 schools and 28,291 participants. Measures: Demographic variables and covariates (ie, sexual identity, sex, race/ethnicity), independent variables (ie, grade level 6-12, perceived harm of using electronic cigarettes) and dependent variable (ie, past 30-day use of electronic cigarettes). Results: A binary logistic regression, including interaction F(6, 131) = 1.87, P = 0.000, indicated that perceived harm moderated the relation between grade level and electronic cigarette use in the past 30 days. As grade level increased so did the probability of using electronic cigarettes; however, the tested model extended these findings by including perceived harm as a moderator. Thus, the model allowed testing differences within and between grade levels. The highest probability of electronic cigarette use was for youth in 12^th grade with low perceived harm whereas the lowest use was in 6^th grade, regardless of perceived harm level. Conclusion: We believe our findings present novel ways to approach adolescent electronic cigarette health promotion, prevention, and education with the goal of influencing perceptions of harm for electronic cigarette use, especially with youth at lower grade levels.

Purpose: The use of cannabis is an important public health concern in the United States. The connection between perceived risk and cannabis use has been documented in the substance use literature for youth and adults. Design: Examine how past 30-day cannabis use is influenced by the interaction between perceived risk and age. Subjects: Nationally representative sample of individuals ages 12 and older in the United States. Measures: Secondary data analysis of the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 58, 034). Analysis: Binary logistic regression that included the complex sampling elements of the survey. Results: Support was found for an interaction between age and perceived risk. Most notably, the sharpest increase in the probability of cannabis use occurred between the 12-17 and 18-25 year-old age groups for no/low risk perception. Conclusion: Addressing the perceived risk of cannabis use at younger ages – specifically adolescence – may be an important prevention strategy for later cannabis use. Results directly inform preventive interventions regarding by indicating the age groups that at are at a higher probability for using cannabis based on perceived risk levels. This study adds to the literature by directly testing an interaction between perceived risk and age on the probability of using cannabis in the past 30-days at the population level.

Cannabis use is a public health concern in the United States, and its use is increasingly popular across age groups. Emerging research suggests that smoking cannabis may be perceived as riskier compared to vaping cannabis, like the use of combustible cigarettes and vaping for nicotine. The purpose of the present study is to examine how the perceived risk for smoking cannabis is influenced by the method of use (i.e., vaping, no-vaping, or no-use) and age at the population level. A secondary data analysis from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 58,034) for individuals ages 12 and older in the United States was conducted using binary logistic regression. For vaping and no-vaping, differences in perceived risk of smoking cannabis were not dependent on age groupings, however, support was found for an interaction between perceived risk of smoking cannabis and age when comparing vaping and no-use.

Alcohol-use disorders (AUDs) are characterized by repeated episodes of binge drinking. Based on reports that exposure to predator odor stress (PS) consistently increases ethanol intake, the present studies examined whether prior binge drinking differentially altered responsivity to PS and subsequent ethanol intake in male and female mice, when compared to mice without prior binge exposure. Initial studies in naïve male and female C57BL/6J mice confirmed that 30-min exposure to dirty rat bedding significantly increased plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels and anxiety-related behavior, justifying the use of dirty rat bedding as PS in the subsequent drinking studies. Next, separate groups of male and female C57BL/6J mice received seven binge ethanol sessions (binge) or drank water (controls), followed by a 1-month period of abstinence. Then, 2-bottle choice ethanol intake (10% or 10E vs. water, 23 h/day) was measured in lickometer chambers for 4 weeks. After baseline intake stabilized, exposure to intermittent PS (2×/week × 2 weeks) significantly enhanced ethanol intake after the 2nd PS in male, but not female, binge mice vs. baseline and vs. the increase in controls. However, in a subgroup of females (with low baselines), PS produced a similar increase in 10E intake in control and binge mice vs. baseline. Analysis of lick behavior determined that the enhanced 10E intake in binge male mice and in the female low baseline subgroup was associated with a significant increase in 10E bout frequency and 10E licks throughout the circadian dark phase. Thus, PS significantly increased 10E intake and had a synergistic interaction with prior binge drinking in males, whereas PS produced a similar significant increase in 10E intake in the low baseline subgroup of binge and control females. Plasma CORT levels were increased significantly in both binge and control animals after PS. CORT levels at 24-h withdrawal from daily 10E intake were highest in the groups with elevated 10E licks (i.e., binge males and control females). At 24-h withdrawal, protein levels of GABA_A receptor α1 subunit, corticotropin releasing factor receptor 1, and glucocorticoid receptor in prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus (HC) were differentially altered in the male and female mice vs. levels in separate groups of age-matched naïve mice, with more changes in HC than in PFC and in females than in males. Importantly, the sexually divergent changes in protein levels in PFC and HC add to evidence for sex differences in the neurochemical systems influenced by stress and binge drinking, and argue for sex-specific pharmacological strategies to treat AUD.