Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2010 Oct;12 Suppl(Suppl 1):S45-50.
doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntq038.

The reliability and predictive validity of the Heaviness of Smoking Index and its two components: findings from the International Tobacco Control Four Country study

R Borland  1 , H-H Yong, R J O'Connor, A Hyland, M E Thompson
Affiliations
Comparative Study

The reliability and predictive validity of the Heaviness of Smoking Index and its two components: findings from the International Tobacco Control Four Country study

R Borland et al. Nicotine Tob Res. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

Background: There is increasing recognition that the two measures in the Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI), time to first cigarette of the day (TTFC) and daily consumption (cigarettes per day [CPD]), are strong predictors of quitting behavior.

Methods: Use of Waves 1-4 of International Tobacco Control cohort with around 8,000 respondents per wave and 6,000 for prediction of quit outcomes at the next wave. We measured TTFC and CPD at each wave and quit outcomes at the next wave. We also looked at the relative utility of the standard categorical scoring compared with a continuous score using the square root of CPD minus the natural log of TTFC in minutes.

Results: We found considerable consistency of the measures across years with a small decrease as duration between measurements increased. For a 3-year gap, the correlations were .72 and .70 for the continuous and categorical composite HSI measures, respectively, and were at least .63 for the individual components. Both TTFC and CPD independently predicted maintenance of quit attempts (for at least 1 month) in each of the three wave-to-wave replications, and these effects were maintained when controlling for demographic factors. CPD also predicted making attempts consistently, but the results for TTFC was not consistently significant.

Discussion: Both TTFC and CPD are fairly reliable over time and are important predictors of quitting. There are only small effects of mode of computing the scores, and the two items can be used either individually or combined as the HSI.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Percent making quit attempts (a and b) and quit success (c and d) as a function of cigarettes per day (square root) and time to first cigarette (natural log). For quit attempts and quit success, the lower level at Wave 2 is because the W1–W2 intersurvey interval was shorter (around 7 months) than for the other two waves (13–14 months).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Baker TB, Piper ME, McCarthy DE, Bolt DM, Smith SS, Kim S, et al. Time to first cigarette in the morning as an index of ability to quit smoking: Implications for nicotine dependence. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2007;9(Suppl. 4):555–570. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Borland R, Owen N. Need to smoke in the context of workplace smoking bans. Preventive Medicine. 1995;24:56–60. - PubMed
    1. Chaiton MO, Cohen JE, McDonald PW, Bondy SJ. The Heaviness of Smoking Index as a predictor of smoking cessation in Canada. Addictive Behaviours. 2007;32:1031–1042. - PubMed
    1. Fong GT, Cummings KM, Borland R, Hastings G, Hyland A, Giovino GA, et al. The conceptual framework of the international tobacco control (ITC) policy evaluation project. Tobacco Control. 2006;15(Suppl. 3):3–11. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Heatherton TF, Kozlowski LT, Frecker RC, Fagerstrom K. The Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence: A revision of the Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire. British Journal of Addiction. 1991;86:1119–1127. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms