Observational studyJournal of primary care & community health
Primary Care Patient Social Networks and Tobacco Use: An Observational Study.
Observational study in Journal of primary care & community health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pandemic Associated Changes in Personal Substance Use and Perceptions of Changes to Peer Substance Use among College Students: A Retrospective Assessment.Journal of drug education · 2025Article
- Differences in the association of oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices with frailty among community-dwelling older people in China.BMC oral health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
importanceTobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable deaths and is susceptible to social influence. Yet, we know little about the characteristics of primary care social networks and how they influence tobacco use.
objectiveTo determine what primary care patient social network characteristics are associated with individual smoking behavior.
designCross-sectional.
settingTwo primary care practices in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PA), USA.
participantsA random sample of 53 primary care patients and 155 of their nominated social ties. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES: We examined the association between social network characteristics (degree, communicated weighted social ties, and presence of social reinforcement) and tobacco use history (never smoker, successful quitter, or current smoker). Other covariates included age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, income, and employment status, self-efficacy, depression status, provider-patient relationship.
resultsOf those enrolled in our study (n = 208), 101 identified as never smokers, 59 as successfully quitters, and 48 as current smokers. Social reinforcements from connected alter pairs that never-smoked (OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.34) was significantly associated with a participant being a never smoker. Participants with stronger ties with successful quitters were significantly more likely to identify as successfully quitting (OR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.69) and conversely had a negative association with stronger ties to unsuccessful quitters (OR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.44, 0.80) or current smokers who had not tried to quit in the last year (OR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.68, 0.98). Social reinforcement from connected pairs of alters that were unsuccessful quitters was significantly associated with the participant being a current smoker (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.45).
conclusionsOur study suggests that smoking behaviors do not occur in isolation, nor because of 1 or 2 prominent social network members. Rather, our findings suggest that both strong ties and social reinforcement from clusters of similarly-behaving persons influence smoking behavior. Primary care practices have an opportunity to leverage these insights on patient networks to improve cancer prevention.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.