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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Feb 19.
Published in final edited form as: Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 Feb 16;23(3):573–583. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa110

Table 1.

Tobacco User Groups

Tobacco user groups Definition
All tobacco users (n = 8882) All current established every day or intermittent cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, filtered cigar, pipe, hookah, smokeless, snus pouches, dissolvable, and e-cigarette users.
 Exclusive combustible product user (n = 5576)
  Every day (n = 3176) Current users who are both established and every day users of only cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, filtered cigar, pipe, and/or hookah; not users of any other tobacco products.
  Intermittent (n = 2400) Current experimental or someday users who use only cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, filtered cigar, pipe, and/or hookah; not users of any other tobacco products.
 Exclusive smokeless product user (n = 476)
  Every day (n = 355) Current users who are both established and every day users of only smokeless, snus pouches, and/or dissolvable products; not using any other tobacco products.
  Intermittent (n = 121) Current experimental or someday users of only smokeless, snus pouches, and/or dissolvable tobacco; not using any other tobacco products.
 Exclusive e-cigarette user (n = 258)
  Every day (n = 152) Current users who are both established and every day users of only e-cigarettes; not using any other tobacco products.
  Intermittent (n = 106) Current experimental or someday users of only e-cigarettes; not using any other tobacco products.
 Poly user (n = 2572)
  Every day (n = 1983) Current established every day user of combustibles, smokeless, and/or e-cigarettes and daily or intermittent user of at least one other category.
  Intermittent (n = 589) Current experimental or someday users of combustibles, smokeless, and/or e-cigarettes and intermittent user of at least one other category.
All nonusers (n = 2122) All former users and never users.
 Former (n = 559) Former established or experimental cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, filtered cigar, pipe, hookah, smokeless tobacco, snus pouches, dissolvable, and/or e-cigarette users or former NRT users.
 Never (n = 1563) Never used any tobacco product (cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, filtered cigar, pipe, hookah, smokeless tobacco, snus pouches, dissolvable, and/or e-cigarette) or NRT.

NNAL = 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol; PATH = Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health.

a

Established cigarette user: used more than 100 cigarettes in lifetime; established user of product other than cigarettes: used product fairly regularly.

b

All “user” categories (except for former user) exclude pharmaceutical nicotine sources such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).

c

All “user” categories (except for never user) can include former users of any tobacco products or pharmaceutical nicotine sources.

d

All retained subjects had urine creatinine levels (10 < UCREAT < 370) to eliminate abnormally dilute or concentrated samples.

e

All retained subjects had values for age, gender, race-ethnicity, educational level, and tobacco use status.

f

All retained subjects included NNAL measurements including those with nondetectable levels (such as nonsmokers).

g

Exclusions were made for: creatinine <10 or >370 = 250; no measurement of NNAL available = 22; lack of information on product use group = 132; use of NRT = 111; dropping out of the PATH study participants = 3. Wave 1 received subjects (11 522) – exclusions (518) = sample size of 11 004.