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Abstract:
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Smokers begin their 'careers' with sporadic or irregular smoking, which progresses to a regular habit after long exposure. Here, we apply intensive longitudinal methods to an adolescent study in which subjects carry a palm pilot for a week and get random and event-triggered (i.e., when they smoke a cigarette) prompts for data. Using this Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data, we describe how mixed models---including heterogeneous between- and within-subjects variance---can be used to address key questions in smoking research. For example, this kind of intensive measurement allows us to model differences in both types of variances, which permits us to investigate the degree to which more-experienced smokers exhibit less variability on several outcomes relative to less-experienced smokers.
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