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Original research
Reactions to messages about smoking, vaping and COVID-19: two national experiments
  1. Anna H Grummon1,2,
  2. Marissa G Hall3,4,5,
  3. Chloe G Mitchell3,
  4. Marlyn Pulido3,
  5. Jennifer Mendel Sheldon4,
  6. Seth M Noar4,6,
  7. Kurt M Ribisl3,4,
  8. Noel T Brewer3,4
  1. 1 Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
  2. 2 Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  3. 3 Department of Health Behavior, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  4. 4 Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  5. 5 Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  6. 6 Hussman School of Journalism and Media, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Anna H Grummon, Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University TH Chan School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; agrummon{at}hsph.harvard.edu

Abstract

Introduction The pace and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with ongoing efforts by health agencies to communicate harms, have created a pressing need for data to inform messaging about smoking, vaping, and COVID-19. We examined reactions to COVID-19 and traditional health harms messages discouraging smoking and vaping.

Methods Participants were a national convenience sample of 810 US adults recruited online in May 2020. All participated in a smoking message experiment and a vaping message experiment, presented in a random order. In each experiment, participants viewed one message formatted as a Twitter post. The experiments adopted a 3 (traditional health harms of smoking or vaping: three harms, one harm, absent) × 2 (COVID-19 harms: one harm, absent) between-subjects design. Outcomes included perceived message effectiveness (primary) and constructs from the Tobacco Warnings Model (secondary: attention, negative affect, cognitive elaboration, social interactions).

Results Smoking messages with traditional or COVID-19 harms elicited higher perceived effectiveness for discouraging smoking than control messages without these harms (all p <0.001). However, including both traditional and COVID-19 harms in smoking messages had no benefit beyond including either alone. Smoking messages affected Tobacco Warnings Model constructs and did not elicit more reactance than control messages. Smoking messages also elicited higher perceived effectiveness for discouraging vaping. Including traditional harms in messages about vaping elicited higher perceived effectiveness for discouraging vaping (p <0.05), but including COVID-19 harms did not.

Conclusions Messages linking smoking with COVID-19 may hold promise for discouraging smoking and may have the added benefit of also discouraging vaping.

  • electronic nicotine delivery devices
  • prevention
  • social marketing

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request. Data are available upon request to the corresponding author, assuming appropriate human subjects protections have been met by the researcher requesting access.

This article is made freely available for personal use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-055956

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request. Data are available upon request to the corresponding author, assuming appropriate human subjects protections have been met by the researcher requesting access.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @AnnaGrummon

    • Contributors AHG had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Study concept and design: AHG, MGH, SMN, KMR and NTB. Acquisition, analysis or interpretation of the data: AHG, MGH, CGM, JRM, SMN, KMR and NTB. Drafting of the manuscript: AHG, MGH, JRM, SMN and NTB. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: all authors. Statistical analysis: AHG and CGM. Obtained funding: KMR. Administrative, technical, or material support: AHG, JRM and NTB. Study supervision: AHG and NTB.

    • Funding The University of North Carolina’s University Cancer Research Fund provided funding for data collection and supported CGM’s time working on the paper. K01HL147713 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH supported MGH’s time working on the paper.

    • Disclaimer The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

    • Competing interests None of the authors have received funding from tobacco product manufacturers. NTB, SMN, and KMR have served as paid expert consultants in litigation against e-cigarette and tobacco companies. JMS has served as a paid consultant in government litigation against tobacco companies.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.

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