Introduction

Growing rates of e-cigarette use among youth have reached epidemic proportions. Media messages have been deployed to counteract this trend, but their evaluations are lacking. We assessed youth’s and parents’ reactions to various existing e-cigarette prevention messages.

Methods

In 2019, 12 focus groups were conducted with youth (n = 63) and parents (n = 27). Participants discussed their reactions to 9 existing messages with various topics.

Results

Information on chemicals in e-cigarettes was seen as new and scary, but unknown chemical names created confusion. Youth appreciated novel ways to visualize health effects of e-cigarettes (parasites in the body) and nicotine’s effect on behavior (mood swings), but they cautioned that some of these effects (irritability) are not always caused by nicotine. Some participants did not know if e-cigarette companies were “Big Tobacco.” Some found it hard to argue with the financial costs of vaping, but others did not think they were too great. Participants recommended messages featuring testimonials from diverse adolescents and messages aimed at youth who are struggling with addiction to e-cigarettes.

Conclusion

Messages would be particularly effective if they featured real youth and did not look like adults created them for youth. Another area that is currently not covered in media messages is talking to youth who are using e-cigarettes and might be already addicted but do not know where to turn for help. These adolescents need to be referred to resources for cessation.

中文翻译：

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“别做vape，兄弟！” 对青少年和父母对预防电子烟广告的反应的定性研究。

介绍

年轻人中使用电子烟的比率已经达到流行病的程度。已经部署了媒体消息来抵消这种趋势，但是缺乏对它们的评估。我们评估了青少年和父母对现有各种电子烟预防信息的反应。

方法

在2019年，与青少年（n = 63）和父母（n = 27）进行了12个焦点小组讨论。参加者讨论了他们对9个具有不同主题的现有消息的反应。

结果

关于电子烟中化学物质的信息被认为是新的和令人恐惧的，但是未知的化学物质名称造成了混乱。青年人喜欢新颖的方法来可视化电子烟（体内寄生虫）对健康的影响以及尼古丁对行为的影响（情绪波动），但他们警告说，其中某些影响（烦躁）并不总是由尼古丁引起的。一些参与者不知道电子烟公司是否是“大烟草”。有些人发现很难与雾化的财务成本相抗衡，但另一些人则认为它们并不过分。与会者推荐了以来自不同青少年的推荐信为特色的信息，以及针对那些正沉迷于电子烟成瘾的年轻人的信息。

结论

如果信息以真正的青年为特征，并且看起来不像成年人为青年创造的话，那么它们将特别有效。媒体消息目前还没有涉及的另一个领域是与正在使用电子烟的年轻人交谈，他们可能已经上瘾了，但不知道该去哪里寻求帮助。这些青少年需要转介到戒烟资源。