PhenX: Host: Social/Cognitive measures for tobacco regulatory research

A working group (WG) of experts from diverse fields related to nicotine and tobacco addiction was convened to identify elements and measures from the Host: Social/Cognitive domain to include in the Tobacco Regulatory Research Collection in the PhenX Toolkit, a catalogue of measures for biomedical research. This paper describes the methods used to identify, select, approve and include measures in the toolkit with potential relevance to users of both conventional and newer tobacco products, such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). In addition to 25 complementary measures primarily focused on cigarette use already present in the PhenX Toolkit, the WG recommended 11 additional social/cognitive measures focused on children and adult users or potential users of tobacco products. Of these, 10 were self-administered measures: frequency of communication with parents about smoking, quality of communication with parents about smoking, susceptibility to tobacco use, behaviour economics/purchase behaviour, motivation to quit (both single and multi-item measures), hedonic tone or response to pleasurable situations, multigroup ethnic identity, peer and family influence on smoking, attentional control and house rules about tobacco use. The remaining selected measure was computer based (distress tolerance). Although validated tools for use in the Host: Social/Cognitive realm are available, much remains to be done to develop, standardise and validate the tools for application to users of e-cigarettes and other non-combusted tobacco products, non-English language speakers and adolescents.