It was administered in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese and contained closed-ended questions http://www.selleckchem.com/products/nutlin-3a.html that took approximately 25 min to complete. The cooperation rate for the NYSES was 54%, which is typical for random-digit�Cdialed telephone studies in large, densely populated urban areas (Galea et al., 2003). Comparisons of the NYSES sample to the U.S. census revealed that the sample was representative of New York City residents on age, gender, and race/ethnicity (data not shown). The institutional review board at the University of Michigan approved the study’s protocol. Current smokers (N=835) answered additional survey questions (requiring about five more minutes). These questions were designed to assess the perceived social unacceptability of smoking and possible behavioral correlates of this social unacceptability.

The dependent variable in the present study was the response to the following question: ��Have you ever kept your smoking status a secret from a doctor or other health care provider?�� We also assessed potential demographic correlates (age, race/ethnicity, education, income, and marital status) and other potential covariates of keeping one’s smoking status a secret. Specifically, we asked respondents if they were the parent or primary caretaker of any children under the age of 21 and asked them to characterize their general health status (excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor). Parents may be more reluctant to admit to a health care provider that they smoke because of fear of embarrassment or shame for exposing family members to the harms posed by second-hand smoke or because they do not want to be perceived as a poor role model to their children because of their smoking.

People in fair or poor health also may keep their smoking status a secret from health care providers due to embarrassment that, instead of taking steps to improve health, they are further harming their health by continuing to smoke. The measures of tobacco use, including the average number of cigarettes smoked per day in the past 12 months (categorized as ��5, 6�C10, 11�C20, or >20), and tobacco dependence were assessed using the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview (Kessler & Ustun, 2004; Kessler et al., 2004). The measure of tobacco dependence asks about problems respondents may have had because of smoking tobacco (e.g.

, emotional symptoms after cutting down or stopping smoking). Current smoking status was Anacetrapib assessed with the question ��Are you a current smoker, ex-smoker, or have you never smoked?�� Several items were used to assess the perceived social unacceptability of smoking, including variables that tap into respondents�� normative environment and new items designed for the present study to assess the extent to which smokers perceive stigma and differential treatment because of their smoking status.