Introduction Efforts to prevent youth tobacco use are critical to reducing smoking-related deaths in the USA. Anti-tobacco messaging often focuses on the severe long-term consequences of smoking (eg, fatal lung disease, cancer). It is unclear whether these long-term consequences are more likely to deter youth use than shorter term consequences (eg, headaches, friend disapproval).

Methods A nationally representative 3-year rolling survey of adolescents and young adults (ages 13–26 years) measured belief in potential consequences of two types of tobacco products: combustible cigarettes (n=11 847) and electronic cigarettes (n=4470) as well as intentions and current use. Independent coders classified 23 consequences as either short or long term. Logistic regression tested the associations between short-term (vs long-term) beliefs and current intentions, as well as non-smoking behaviour at 6-month follow-up.

Results Believing in both short-term and long-term consequences was associated with outcomes, but short-term beliefs were more highly associated with anti-smoking (OR=1.40, 95% CI (1.30 to 1.51)) and anti-vaping (OR=2.10, 95% CI (1.75 to 2.52)) intentions and better predicted non-smoking behaviour at follow-up, controlling for prior use (OR=1.75, 95% CI (1.33 to 2.31)).

Conclusions These results support temporal discounting by adolescents and young adults and suggest health communication efforts aiming to reduce youth tobacco use should emphasise shorter term consequences.