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Brief report
Effects of IQOS health warnings and modified risk claims among young adult cigarette smokers and non-smokers
  1. Darren Mays1,
  2. Andrea C Johnson2,
  3. Allison Glasser3,
  4. Melissa Mercincavage2,
  5. Andrew A Strasser2
  1. 1 Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
  2. 2 Department of Psychiatry and Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  3. 3 College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Darren Mays, Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43214, USA; mays.72{at}osu.edu

Abstract

Introduction Heated tobacco products, including Marlboro IQOS, are available globally. In the USA, IQOS was authorised to be advertised with claims about reduced toxicant exposure relative to cigarettes. The effects of such modified risk claims and health warnings have not been studied among young adult cigarette smokers and non-smokers.

Methods In 2020, US young adult (18–30 years, n=1328) cigarette smokers and non-smokers viewed an IQOS ad in a 4 (modified risk claim variations or none) by 3 (warning variations or none) between-subjects experiment. Outcome measures assessed perceived credibility and effectiveness of the health or risk message for discouraging IQOS use, perceived harms, efficacy beliefs, and IQOS use intentions.

Results Smokers reported significantly higher (p<0.05) perceived credibility, lower perceived effectiveness, higher efficacy beliefs about switching to IQOS and higher intentions to use IQOS than non-smokers. Among smokers, health warnings increased perceived credibility (p<0.001) and effectiveness (p<0.05), but claims did not affect outcomes examined. Among non-smokers, warnings and claims increased perceived credibility, and warnings increased perceived effectiveness (p<0.003). The reduced exposure claim increased non-smokers’ intentions to use IQOS (b=0.40, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.73).

Conclusions Among young adult smokers, health warnings increased perceived effectiveness at discouraging IQOS use and perceived credibility. Among non-smokers, warnings and claims increased perceived credibility and warnings increased perceived effectiveness, but the Food and Drug Administration-authorised reduced exposure claim increased intentions to use IQOS. Research is warranted to understand how the content of modified risk claims and health warnings for IQOS affects IQOS use in this population.

  • non-cigarette tobacco products
  • packaging and labelling
  • prevention

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056810

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @darren_mays, @AndreaC_PhD

    • Contributors DM conceptualised the study, collected the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ACJ collected the data, analysed the data and revised the manuscript. AG, MM and AAS interpreted the data and revised the manuscript.

    • Funding Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number P30CA051008. Research reported in this publication was also supported by the NCI of the NIH and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products under Award Number U54CA229973.

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

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • 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.