Tobacco control efforts shrink smoking rate
If all 50 states and the District of Columbia had participated in a 17-state antismoking program funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), there would now be approximately 280,000 fewer smokers, according to Scott Leischow, PhD, chief of the NCI’s Tobacco Control Research Branch.

The 8-year-long program, called the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST), promoted smoke-free environments, countered tobacco advertising and promotion, limited youths’ access to tobacco products, and raised excise taxes to increase the price of tobacco products.

Leischow says ASSIST had a “small but significant effect on smoking prevalence” in the 17 US states that participated in the program. The states included in the ASSIST evaluation, which was published in the November 18 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, were Colorado, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Funded by the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, ASSIST cost a total of $128 million, or about $1,200 for each smoker who quit. Elizabeth A. Gillian, a University of California, San Diego, researcher and a coauthor of the study, told The Associated Press (AP) that the cost was “a real bargain.”

“Most smoking cessation programs will spend that [for each smoker],” Gillian told the AP. “That’s just for a few hours of a counselor’s time. When you think about what you save in health care costs, $1,200 is a real bargain.”

Inhaled corticosteroids remain “gold standard”
Patients concerned about the negative side effects related to inhaled corticosteroid use may be able to breathe a little easier thanks to a recent study.

An expert panel that reviewed 108 asthma studies related to inhaled corticosteroid therapy complications found that the drug’s benefits greatly outweigh the risks. The panel—made up of representatives from the American College of Chest Physicians, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, and the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology—examined whether adults and children are in danger of experiencing reduced bone mineral density, cataracts, glaucoma, growth retardation, and skin thinning as a result of inhaled corticosteroid use.

The panel found no link between inhaled corticosteroid use and a reduction in bone mass density in children with asthma. Results regarding the drugs’ effects on bone mass density in adults, as well as cataracts and glaucoma, were insubstantial because they were supported only by conflicting or insufficient data. Although the panel found that inhaled corticosteroid use caused some skin thinning and easy bruising in both adults and children, dose, duration of use, and patient gender were important variables affecting overall risk. While the panel concluded that the drug therapy is associated with a decrease in short-term growth rates in children, the group says the overall effect was small and may not be sustained with long-term therapy.

Lead author Frank T. Leone, MD, MS, FCCP, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, concluded that despite side effects, inhaled corticosteroids remain the “gold standard” in asthma treatment.