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Published on: August 6, 2013
The importance of peer imitation on smoking initiation over time: a dynamical systems approach
Carl Simon1,2,3, David Mendez4,5,6
1Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, 735 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. cpsimon@umich.edu.
Abstract:
A recent Institute of Medicine Report calls for explicit modeling of smoking initiation, cessation and addiction processes. We introduce a model of smoking initiation that explicitly teases out the percentage of initiation due to social pressures, which we call "peer-imitation," and the percentage due to other factors, such as media ads, family smoking, and psychological factors, which we call "self-initiation." We propose a dynamic non-linear behavioral contagion model of smoking initiation and employ data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to estimate the relative contributions of imitation and self-initiation to the overall smoking initiation process. Although the percent of total smoking due to peer imitation has been trending downward over time, it remains higher than the percent due to self-initiation. We note unexpected changes for the 2007 cohort, and we discuss possible implications for intervention and for the spread of e-cigarettes.
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