Addiction Potential of Very Low Nicotine Filtered Little Cigars

Functional residual capacity

Functional residual capacity will be measured with plethysmography to assess dynamic hyperinflation after the smoking session

Time frame: Change from 0 to 65 minutes

Airway resistance (R5)

Impulse oscillometry will be used to measure total airway resistance before and after the smoking session

Time frame: Change from 0 to 65 minutes

Airway resistance (R5-R20)

Impulse oscillometry will be used to measure small airway resistance before and after the smoking session

Time frame: Change from 0 to 65 minutes

Modified Cigarette Evaluation Scale

The 12-item modified Cigarette Evaluation Scale will provide subjective effects of smoking cigars on a 0-6-point Likert scale from "not at all" to "extremely". There are five subscales including smoking satisfaction, psychological reward, enjoyment of respiratory symptoms, craving reduction, and aversion

Time frame: 65 minutes

Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (Tiffany Drobes)

Smoking urges/craving will be measured using the Tiffany-Drobes Questionnaire of Smoking Urges: Brief Form. This is a 10-item measure where participants rate smoking-related items (All I want right now is a cigarette) on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Similar to previous studies, we will collapse the items into two previously identified factors (Factor 1: strong desire and intention to smoke; Factor 2: anticipation of relief from withdrawal symptoms). Scores are calculated by summing the items and range from 5 to 35 with higher scores indicating greater craving to smoke

Time frame: Change from 0 to 5 minutes

Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (Tiffany Drobes)

Smoking urges/craving will be measured using the Tiffany-Drobes Questionnaire of Smoking Urges: Brief Form. This is a 10-item measure where participants rate smoking-related items (All I want right now is a cigarette) on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Similar to previous studies, we will collapse the items into two previously identified factors (Factor 1: strong desire and intention to smoke; Factor 2: anticipation of relief from withdrawal symptoms). Scores are calculated by summing the items and range from 5 to 35 with higher scores indicating greater craving to smoke

Time frame: Change from 0 to 65 minutes

Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale

Nicotine withdrawal will be assessed using the empirically validated 15-item version of the Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale (MNWS). Items were rated on a 5-point scale from 0 (none) to 4 (severe). This measure assesses smoking craving, anger/irritability, anxiety, depressed mood, restlessness/difficulty concentrating, increased appetite, sleep problems, and somatic symptoms (nausea, constipation, sore throat, dizziness, coughing). MNWS is the sum of 7 items with scores ranging from 0 to 28 and MNWS Craving is a single item with scores ranging from 0 to 4, higher scores indicate a greater craving.

Time frame: Change from 0 to 5 minutes

Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale

Nicotine withdrawal will be assessed using the empirically validated 15-item version of the Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale (MNWS). Items were rated on a 5-point scale from 0 (none) to 4 (severe). This measure assesses smoking craving, anger/irritability, anxiety, depressed mood, restlessness/difficulty concentrating, increased appetite, sleep problems, and somatic symptoms (nausea, constipation, sore throat, dizziness, coughing). MNWS is the sum of 7 items with scores ranging from 0 to 28 and MNWS Craving is a single item with scores ranging from 0 to 4, higher scores indicate a greater craving.

Time frame: Change from 0 to 65 minutes

Hypothetical purchase task

Hypothetical purchase task offers a measure of relative reinforcing efficacy. It will be completed after each smoking session. It assesses how many cigars a participant would smoke in a 24-hour period at various hypothetical price conditions and has been used to characterize addiction potential for reduced nicotine content cigars vs. normal nicotine content cigars vs. usual brand cigars. Data from the task leads to five demand indices (intensity or consumption with no cost constraint, price point at which consumption becomes sensitive to price, breakpoint is the price where FLCs are no longer purchased because of high price, largest cost that a participant is willing to incur to purchase FLCs, and elasticity as a measure of the overall sensitivity of FLC consumption to escalating price that measures how behaviors would change under the constraint of increased price).

Time frame: 65 minutes

Cross-price task

The Cross-Price Task will estimate the substitutability of the study cigars for the usual brand cigars. It will be completed after each study product smoking session. Participants will be asked how many study products and usual products they would consume when the price of the study product is fixed and the usual product prices escalate. To determine the extent to which each alternative product serves as a substitute for the study product, cross-price elasticities (CPE) will be calculated as the slope of the regression line (B1) fit to the log-transformed mean purchasing of each study product when offered at fixed prices (C) versus log-transformed usual product price (P): logC = B0 + B1logP. CPE for each study product compared to UB product \> 0.2 indicates substitution, CPE \< -0.2 indicates complementarity, and CPE between -0.2 and 0.2 indicates independence of the two products

Time frame: 65 minutes