Introduction

Young adults’ e-cigarette use is associated with perceptions that e-cigarettes are less harmful or addictive than cigarettes, socially acceptable, and appealing. This study developed and tested vaping educational messages addressing these factors: 1) Harm Perceptions, 2) Addictiveness, 3) Social Use, and 4) Flavors.

Methods

Two message trials were conducted in U.S. Amazon Mechanical Turk workers aged 18–24 using a 2 (content: addiction, harm) × 3 (theme: alone, + flavors, + social) design with multiple messages in each of the six categories. Participants were assigned to view a random subset of messages and report on likeability and perceived message effectiveness (PME). Phase 1 (n = 200) tested 33 messages and 32 images. Phase 2 (n = 769) tested combinations of Phase 1′s 24 most effective messages with 6 images rated most likeable or effective. Linear mixed effects models assessed the effect of content, theme, image, and their interactions on message response.

Results

In both trials, most participants were past 30-day tobacco users. Harm content messages produced higher PME ratings than addiction content messages, and flavor theme messages were correlated with higher likeability scores than “content alone” theme messages. In Phase 2, flavor and social message themes decreased the PME of harm messages. There was no effect of images on either outcome controlling for the independent or interaction effects of content, theme, and image.

Conclusions

Messages conveying the harms of vaping may be best for reducing vaping in young adult tobacco users; flavor and social themes may diminish their effectiveness.

中文翻译：

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识别消息内容以减少电子烟：针对年轻成年烟草使用者的在线消息测试试验结果

 介绍

年轻人使用电子烟与电子烟比香烟危害性或成瘾性更小、为社会所接受且有吸引力的看法有关。这项研究开发并测试了针对以下因素的电子烟教育信息：1) 危害认知，2) 成瘾性，3) 社交用途，以及 4) 口味。

 方法

在美国 Amazon Mechanical Turk 18-24 岁的员工中进行了两项消息试验，采用 2（内容：成瘾、伤害）× 3（主题：单独、+ 风味、+ 社交）设计，在六个类别中的每一个类别中都有多个消息。参与者被分配查看随机的消息子集并报告喜爱度和感知消息有效性（PME）。第 1 阶段 (n = 200) 测试了 33 条消息和 32 张图像。第 2 阶段 (n = 769) 测试了第 1 阶段 24 条最有效的消息与 6 个被评为最受喜爱或最有效的图像的组合。线性混合效应模型评估了内容、主题、图像及其相互作用对消息响应的影响。

 结果

在这两项试验中，大多数参与者都已吸烟超过 30 天。有害内容消息比成瘾内容消息产生更高的 PME 评分，风味主题消息比“仅内容”主题消息与更高的喜爱度得分相关。在第二阶段，风味和社交消息主题降低了有害消息的 PME。对于内容、主题和图像的独立效果或交互效果的控制，图像对结果没有影响。

 结论

传达电子烟危害的信息可能是减少年轻成年烟草使用者使用电子烟的最佳方法；风味和社会主题可能会降低其有效性。