Farhana Haseen is a Senior Health Researcher at the Centre for Substance Use Research. Farhana completed her PhD in Cancer and Nutritional Epidemiology at Queen’s University Belfast. She completed her Masters of Medical Science in International Health in Uppsala University, Sweden and Masters in Nutrition at University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her research career spans approximately 20 years. As an epidemiologist she has worked in health research, largely focussed on large scale quantitative research. She also is expert in managing qualitative research projects.
The effects of centralised and specialised combined pharmacological and psychological interventio... more The effects of centralised and specialised combined pharmacological and psychological intervention compared with decentralised and non-specialised treatment in the early course of severe unipolar and bipolar affective disorders-design of two randomised clinical trials
Whilst e-cigarettes have been characterised by public health bodies as substantially less harmful... more Whilst e-cigarettes have been characterised by public health bodies as substantially less harmful than combustible tobacco products, research shows that a proportion of adults who smoke perceive these devices to be as harmful, or more harmful, than combustible cigarettes. In addition, research also indicates that adults who are smoking are less likely to use these devices to quit smoking when they overestimate the harms of e-cigarettes. In this paper, we focus upon the harm perceptions of a sample of adults who smoke in the United Kingdom. Whilst most of the adults surveyed viewed e-cigarettes as less harmful than combustible cigarettes, around four in ten (41%) viewed these devices as equally harmful as combustible cigarettes, more harmful, or did not know how harmful e-cigarettes were relative to combustible cigarettes. Qualitative interviews with survey participants indicated that the perceptions of relative harm between combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes were a complex amal...
Purpose Continuing to smoke or starting to smoke after a diagnosis of diabetes is associated with... more Purpose Continuing to smoke or starting to smoke after a diagnosis of diabetes is associated with increased health complications, decreased treatment efficacy, and worse survival outcomes. However, the extent and effectiveness of smoking cessation services among patients with diabetes are poorly understood. Nicotine replacement is one of the available interventions to aid smokers in achieving smoking cessation. This systematic review aimed to provide comprehensive evidence on the effects of nicotine-based interventions to support smoking cessation in diabetic patients. Methods Electronic searches were carried out on the following databases: Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library up to November 2022. Searches were supplemented by trial registries, references from identified studies, and review articles. Studies were included if nicotine was used to deliver a smoking cessation intervention and if the impact of the interventions was reported for diabetic patients. All articles were inde...
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, Jan 30, 2017
The influence of e-cigarette use on smoking initiation is a highly controversial issue, with limi... more The influence of e-cigarette use on smoking initiation is a highly controversial issue, with limited longitudinal data available for examining temporal associations. We examined e-cigarette use and its association with cigarette-smoking initiation at 1-year follow-up within a large cohort of Canadian secondary school students. We analyzed data from students in grades 9-12 who participated in 2 waves of COMPASS, a cohort study of purposefully sampled secondary schools in Ontario and Alberta, Canada, at baseline (2013/14) and 1-year follow-up (2014/15). We assessed cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use at baseline and follow-up using self-completed surveys. We used generalized linear mixed-effects models to examine correlates of past 30-day e-cigarette use at baseline and smoking initiation between waves within the longitudinal sample. Past 30-day e-cigarette use increased from 2013/14 to 2014/15 (7.2% v. 9.7%, p < 0.001), whereas past 30-day cigarette smoking decreased slightly (1...
There are multiple ways in which the public health impact of e-cigarettes is being assessed inclu... more There are multiple ways in which the public health impact of e-cigarettes is being assessed including determining the extent to which these devices are being used by current smokers, former smokers, and never smokers and identifying whether and to what extent e-cigarette use is associated with an increase or decrease in the rate of smoking and smoking cessation. In addition to these domains there is merit also in identifying the quantity of cigarettes not being smoked as a result of e-cigarette use. In this paper we focus on this issue by drawing upon data from a study of adult smokers within the United States using the JUUL starter kit. Comparing the quantity of cigarettes smoked in the month before initiating JUUL use with the quantity of cigarettes smoked after three months of JUUL use demonstrates a reduction in the quantity of cigarettes smoked on the part of 7721 adult smokers from 2,074,664 cigarettes to 551,863. Estimating the quantity reduction in cigarettes smoked could be...
To examine the relationship between tobacco cigarette brand recognition, and e-cigarette use in a... more To examine the relationship between tobacco cigarette brand recognition, and e-cigarette use in adolescents. Cross-sectional observational study. High schools in Scotland. Questionnaires were administered to pupils in Secondary 2 (S2 mean age: 14.0 years) and Secondary 4 (S4 mean age: 15.9 years) across 4 communities in Scotland. An 86% response rate with a total sample of 1404 pupils was achieved. Self-reported previous use of e-cigarettes and self-reported intention to try e-cigarettes in the next 6 months. 75% (1029/1377) of respondents had heard of e-cigarettes (69.5% S2, 81.1% S4), and of these, 17.3% (10.6% S2, 24.3% S4 n=1020) had ever tried an e-cigarette. 6.8% (3.7% S2, 10.0% S4 n=1019) reported that they intended to try an e-cigarette in the next 6 months. Recognition of more cigarette brands was associated with greater probability of previous e-cigarette use (OR 1.20, 99% CI 1.05 to 1.38) as was having a best friend who smoked (OR 3.17, 99% CI 1.42 to 7.09). Intention to ...
Poverty persists at an alarming level in Bangladesh. To reduce extreme poverty and create the fou... more Poverty persists at an alarming level in Bangladesh. To reduce extreme poverty and create the foundation for a sustainable livelihood change, BRAC undertook a targeted programme since 2002 named, Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction/Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR/TUP). To investigate the impact of the CFPR/TUP programme on food and energy consumption. Two cross sectional surveys on food consumption were conducted, a pre-intervention survey in 2002 and a post-intervention survey in 2004 covering 180 intervention and 193 non-intervention households. Three days' recall method was administrated in both the survey rounds. The baseline food consumption survey showed an inadequate food intake in all households, which did not differ between the two groups. At post-intervention, the quality and quantity of food intake improved significantly in the intervention households as compared to baseline. In this group, the consumption of various food items such as rice, pulse, vegetable...
Objectives: The Adult JUUL System User Switching and Smoking Trajectories (ADJUSST) study assesse... more Objectives: The Adult JUUL System User Switching and Smoking Trajectories (ADJUSST) study assessed the smoking and JUUL use trajectories of adults who purchased JUUL. In this paper, we describe study methods, characterize the sample, and assesses potential for bias due to loss to follow-up. Methods: We entered 55,414 US adults (≥ age 21) who purchased a JUUL Starter Kit for the first time (online or at retail) in 2018 into a naturalistic, longitudinal observational study, irrespective of baseline smoking status. Participants were invited for follow-ups 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months later, focused on assessing past-30-day smoking and JUUL use. Analyses assessed potential bias due to non-response. Results: Over 90% of participants had a history of smoking; 62.8% were past-30-day smokers; 23.3% were former smokers. Participants' average age was 30; 75% were white. Most participants (77.6%) completed some follow-ups; 25% completed all follow-ups. Baseline differences among complete r...
Despite the uptake of tobacco smoking declining in the UK, smoking is still the leading cause of ... more Despite the uptake of tobacco smoking declining in the UK, smoking is still the leading cause of preventable poor health and premature death. While improved approaches to smoking cessation are necessary, encouraging and assisting smokers to switch by using substantially less toxic non-tobacco nicotine products may be a possible option. To date few studies have investigated the rates of smoking cessation and smoking reduction associated with the free provision of electronic-cigarettes (e-cigarette) to smokers. In this study the Blu Pro e-cigarette was given to smokers for use in place of tobacco for 90 days. The rates of smoking abstinence and daily smoking patterns were assessed at baseline 30 days, 60 days and 90 days. The response rate was 87%. After 90 days, the complete abstinence rate was 36.5% from 0% at baseline. Frequency of daily smoking reduced from 88.7% to 17.5% (P<0.001) and median consumption of cigarettes/day from 15 to 5 (P<0.001). Median days per month partici...
This study examines whether young never smokers in Scotland, UK, who have tried an e-cigarette ar... more This study examines whether young never smokers in Scotland, UK, who have tried an e-cigarette are more likely than those who have not, to try a cigarette during the following year. Prospective cohort survey conducted in four high schools in Scotland, UK during February/March 2015 (n=3807) with follow-up 1 year later. All pupils (age 11-18) were surveyed. Response rates were high in both years (87% in 2015) and 2680/3807 (70.4%) of the original cohort completed the follow-up survey. Analysis was restricted to baseline 'never smokers' (n=3001/3807), 2125 of whom were available to follow-up (70.8%). At baseline, 183 of 2125 (8.6%) never smokers had tried an e-cigarette and 1942 had not. Of the young people who had not tried an e-cigarette at baseline, 249 (12.8%) went on to try smoking a cigarette by follow-up. This compares with 74 (40.4%) of those who had tried an e-cigarette at baseline. This effect remained significant in a logistic regression model adjusted for smoking su...
The effectiveness of commonly suggested public health interventions to control childhood iron-def... more The effectiveness of commonly suggested public health interventions to control childhood iron-deficiency anemia has been low. To determine whether iron provided in Sprinkles daily or in a higher dose once weekly affected hemoglobin, serum ferritin levels, and serum transferrin receptor levels, and to determine whether there were differences in the effects of the two regimens. In this cluster-randomized, community-based trial conducted in rural areas of Bangladesh, 136 children aged 12 to 24 months with mild to moderate anemia (hemoglobin 70-109 g/L) were randomly allocated to receive Sprinkles daily (12.5 mg of elemental iron, n = 79) or once weekly (30 mg of elemental iron, n = 73) for 8 weeks. Hemoglobin, serum ferritin, and serum transferrin receptor were assessed at the start and end of the intervention. In both groups, there were significant increases in hemoglobin and serum ferritin and a significant decrease in serum transferrin receptor (p < .01). There were no significan...
Adolescent girls have high nutrient needs and are susceptible to micronutrient deficiencies. The ... more Adolescent girls have high nutrient needs and are susceptible to micronutrient deficiencies. The objective of this study was to test the effect of a multiple-micronutrient-fortified beverage on hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations, micronutrient status, and growth among adolescent girls in rural Bangladesh. A total of 1125 girls (Hb > or = 70 g/L) enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and were allocated to either a fortified or nonfortified beverage of similar taste and appearance. The beverage was provided at schools 6 d/wk for 12 mo. Concentrations of Hb and serum ferritin (sFt), retinol, zinc, and C-reactive protein were measured in venous blood samples at baseline, 6 mo, and 12 mo. In addition, weight, height, and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurements were taken. The fortified beverage increased the Hb and sFt and retinol concentrations at 6 mo (P < 0.01). Adolescent girls in the nonfortified beverage group were more likely to suffer from ane...
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their advice and guidance during... more Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their advice and guidance during the project:
The effects of centralised and specialised combined pharmacological and psychological interventio... more The effects of centralised and specialised combined pharmacological and psychological intervention compared with decentralised and non-specialised treatment in the early course of severe unipolar and bipolar affective disorders-design of two randomised clinical trials
Whilst e-cigarettes have been characterised by public health bodies as substantially less harmful... more Whilst e-cigarettes have been characterised by public health bodies as substantially less harmful than combustible tobacco products, research shows that a proportion of adults who smoke perceive these devices to be as harmful, or more harmful, than combustible cigarettes. In addition, research also indicates that adults who are smoking are less likely to use these devices to quit smoking when they overestimate the harms of e-cigarettes. In this paper, we focus upon the harm perceptions of a sample of adults who smoke in the United Kingdom. Whilst most of the adults surveyed viewed e-cigarettes as less harmful than combustible cigarettes, around four in ten (41%) viewed these devices as equally harmful as combustible cigarettes, more harmful, or did not know how harmful e-cigarettes were relative to combustible cigarettes. Qualitative interviews with survey participants indicated that the perceptions of relative harm between combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes were a complex amal...
Purpose Continuing to smoke or starting to smoke after a diagnosis of diabetes is associated with... more Purpose Continuing to smoke or starting to smoke after a diagnosis of diabetes is associated with increased health complications, decreased treatment efficacy, and worse survival outcomes. However, the extent and effectiveness of smoking cessation services among patients with diabetes are poorly understood. Nicotine replacement is one of the available interventions to aid smokers in achieving smoking cessation. This systematic review aimed to provide comprehensive evidence on the effects of nicotine-based interventions to support smoking cessation in diabetic patients. Methods Electronic searches were carried out on the following databases: Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library up to November 2022. Searches were supplemented by trial registries, references from identified studies, and review articles. Studies were included if nicotine was used to deliver a smoking cessation intervention and if the impact of the interventions was reported for diabetic patients. All articles were inde...
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, Jan 30, 2017
The influence of e-cigarette use on smoking initiation is a highly controversial issue, with limi... more The influence of e-cigarette use on smoking initiation is a highly controversial issue, with limited longitudinal data available for examining temporal associations. We examined e-cigarette use and its association with cigarette-smoking initiation at 1-year follow-up within a large cohort of Canadian secondary school students. We analyzed data from students in grades 9-12 who participated in 2 waves of COMPASS, a cohort study of purposefully sampled secondary schools in Ontario and Alberta, Canada, at baseline (2013/14) and 1-year follow-up (2014/15). We assessed cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use at baseline and follow-up using self-completed surveys. We used generalized linear mixed-effects models to examine correlates of past 30-day e-cigarette use at baseline and smoking initiation between waves within the longitudinal sample. Past 30-day e-cigarette use increased from 2013/14 to 2014/15 (7.2% v. 9.7%, p < 0.001), whereas past 30-day cigarette smoking decreased slightly (1...
There are multiple ways in which the public health impact of e-cigarettes is being assessed inclu... more There are multiple ways in which the public health impact of e-cigarettes is being assessed including determining the extent to which these devices are being used by current smokers, former smokers, and never smokers and identifying whether and to what extent e-cigarette use is associated with an increase or decrease in the rate of smoking and smoking cessation. In addition to these domains there is merit also in identifying the quantity of cigarettes not being smoked as a result of e-cigarette use. In this paper we focus on this issue by drawing upon data from a study of adult smokers within the United States using the JUUL starter kit. Comparing the quantity of cigarettes smoked in the month before initiating JUUL use with the quantity of cigarettes smoked after three months of JUUL use demonstrates a reduction in the quantity of cigarettes smoked on the part of 7721 adult smokers from 2,074,664 cigarettes to 551,863. Estimating the quantity reduction in cigarettes smoked could be...
To examine the relationship between tobacco cigarette brand recognition, and e-cigarette use in a... more To examine the relationship between tobacco cigarette brand recognition, and e-cigarette use in adolescents. Cross-sectional observational study. High schools in Scotland. Questionnaires were administered to pupils in Secondary 2 (S2 mean age: 14.0 years) and Secondary 4 (S4 mean age: 15.9 years) across 4 communities in Scotland. An 86% response rate with a total sample of 1404 pupils was achieved. Self-reported previous use of e-cigarettes and self-reported intention to try e-cigarettes in the next 6 months. 75% (1029/1377) of respondents had heard of e-cigarettes (69.5% S2, 81.1% S4), and of these, 17.3% (10.6% S2, 24.3% S4 n=1020) had ever tried an e-cigarette. 6.8% (3.7% S2, 10.0% S4 n=1019) reported that they intended to try an e-cigarette in the next 6 months. Recognition of more cigarette brands was associated with greater probability of previous e-cigarette use (OR 1.20, 99% CI 1.05 to 1.38) as was having a best friend who smoked (OR 3.17, 99% CI 1.42 to 7.09). Intention to ...
Poverty persists at an alarming level in Bangladesh. To reduce extreme poverty and create the fou... more Poverty persists at an alarming level in Bangladesh. To reduce extreme poverty and create the foundation for a sustainable livelihood change, BRAC undertook a targeted programme since 2002 named, Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction/Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR/TUP). To investigate the impact of the CFPR/TUP programme on food and energy consumption. Two cross sectional surveys on food consumption were conducted, a pre-intervention survey in 2002 and a post-intervention survey in 2004 covering 180 intervention and 193 non-intervention households. Three days' recall method was administrated in both the survey rounds. The baseline food consumption survey showed an inadequate food intake in all households, which did not differ between the two groups. At post-intervention, the quality and quantity of food intake improved significantly in the intervention households as compared to baseline. In this group, the consumption of various food items such as rice, pulse, vegetable...
Objectives: The Adult JUUL System User Switching and Smoking Trajectories (ADJUSST) study assesse... more Objectives: The Adult JUUL System User Switching and Smoking Trajectories (ADJUSST) study assessed the smoking and JUUL use trajectories of adults who purchased JUUL. In this paper, we describe study methods, characterize the sample, and assesses potential for bias due to loss to follow-up. Methods: We entered 55,414 US adults (≥ age 21) who purchased a JUUL Starter Kit for the first time (online or at retail) in 2018 into a naturalistic, longitudinal observational study, irrespective of baseline smoking status. Participants were invited for follow-ups 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months later, focused on assessing past-30-day smoking and JUUL use. Analyses assessed potential bias due to non-response. Results: Over 90% of participants had a history of smoking; 62.8% were past-30-day smokers; 23.3% were former smokers. Participants' average age was 30; 75% were white. Most participants (77.6%) completed some follow-ups; 25% completed all follow-ups. Baseline differences among complete r...
Despite the uptake of tobacco smoking declining in the UK, smoking is still the leading cause of ... more Despite the uptake of tobacco smoking declining in the UK, smoking is still the leading cause of preventable poor health and premature death. While improved approaches to smoking cessation are necessary, encouraging and assisting smokers to switch by using substantially less toxic non-tobacco nicotine products may be a possible option. To date few studies have investigated the rates of smoking cessation and smoking reduction associated with the free provision of electronic-cigarettes (e-cigarette) to smokers. In this study the Blu Pro e-cigarette was given to smokers for use in place of tobacco for 90 days. The rates of smoking abstinence and daily smoking patterns were assessed at baseline 30 days, 60 days and 90 days. The response rate was 87%. After 90 days, the complete abstinence rate was 36.5% from 0% at baseline. Frequency of daily smoking reduced from 88.7% to 17.5% (P<0.001) and median consumption of cigarettes/day from 15 to 5 (P<0.001). Median days per month partici...
This study examines whether young never smokers in Scotland, UK, who have tried an e-cigarette ar... more This study examines whether young never smokers in Scotland, UK, who have tried an e-cigarette are more likely than those who have not, to try a cigarette during the following year. Prospective cohort survey conducted in four high schools in Scotland, UK during February/March 2015 (n=3807) with follow-up 1 year later. All pupils (age 11-18) were surveyed. Response rates were high in both years (87% in 2015) and 2680/3807 (70.4%) of the original cohort completed the follow-up survey. Analysis was restricted to baseline 'never smokers' (n=3001/3807), 2125 of whom were available to follow-up (70.8%). At baseline, 183 of 2125 (8.6%) never smokers had tried an e-cigarette and 1942 had not. Of the young people who had not tried an e-cigarette at baseline, 249 (12.8%) went on to try smoking a cigarette by follow-up. This compares with 74 (40.4%) of those who had tried an e-cigarette at baseline. This effect remained significant in a logistic regression model adjusted for smoking su...
The effectiveness of commonly suggested public health interventions to control childhood iron-def... more The effectiveness of commonly suggested public health interventions to control childhood iron-deficiency anemia has been low. To determine whether iron provided in Sprinkles daily or in a higher dose once weekly affected hemoglobin, serum ferritin levels, and serum transferrin receptor levels, and to determine whether there were differences in the effects of the two regimens. In this cluster-randomized, community-based trial conducted in rural areas of Bangladesh, 136 children aged 12 to 24 months with mild to moderate anemia (hemoglobin 70-109 g/L) were randomly allocated to receive Sprinkles daily (12.5 mg of elemental iron, n = 79) or once weekly (30 mg of elemental iron, n = 73) for 8 weeks. Hemoglobin, serum ferritin, and serum transferrin receptor were assessed at the start and end of the intervention. In both groups, there were significant increases in hemoglobin and serum ferritin and a significant decrease in serum transferrin receptor (p < .01). There were no significan...
Adolescent girls have high nutrient needs and are susceptible to micronutrient deficiencies. The ... more Adolescent girls have high nutrient needs and are susceptible to micronutrient deficiencies. The objective of this study was to test the effect of a multiple-micronutrient-fortified beverage on hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations, micronutrient status, and growth among adolescent girls in rural Bangladesh. A total of 1125 girls (Hb > or = 70 g/L) enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial and were allocated to either a fortified or nonfortified beverage of similar taste and appearance. The beverage was provided at schools 6 d/wk for 12 mo. Concentrations of Hb and serum ferritin (sFt), retinol, zinc, and C-reactive protein were measured in venous blood samples at baseline, 6 mo, and 12 mo. In addition, weight, height, and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurements were taken. The fortified beverage increased the Hb and sFt and retinol concentrations at 6 mo (P < 0.01). Adolescent girls in the nonfortified beverage group were more likely to suffer from ane...
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their advice and guidance during... more Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their advice and guidance during the project:
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Papers by Farhana Haseen