Dataset Information

Smokers' and nonsmokers' beliefs about harmful tobacco constituents: implications for FDA communication efforts.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Legislation requires the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release information to the public about harmful constituents in tobacco and tobacco smoke. To inform these efforts, we sought to better understand how smokers and nonsmokers think about tobacco constituents.

Methods

In October 2012, 300 U.S. adults aged 18-66 years completed a cross-sectional Internet survey. The questions focused on 20 harmful tobacco constituents that the FDA has prioritized for communicating with the public.

Results

Most participants had heard of 7 tobacco constituents (ammonia, arsenic, benzene, cadmium, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and nicotine), but few participants had heard of the others (e.g., acrolein). Few participants correctly understood that many constituents were naturally present in tobacco. Substances that companies add to cigarette tobacco discouraged people from wanting to smoke more than substances that naturally occur in cigarette smoke (p < .001). Ammonia, arsenic, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde being in cigarettes elicited the most discouragement from smoking. Constituents elicited greater discouragement from wanting to smoke if respondents were nonsmokers (? = -.34, p < .05), had negative images of smokers (i.e., negative smoker prototypes; ? = .19, p < .05), believed constituents are added to tobacco (? = .14, p < .05), or were older (? = .16, p < .05).

Conclusions

Our study found low awareness of most tobacco constituents, with greater concern elicited by additives. Efforts to communicate health risks of tobacco constituents should consider focusing on ones that elicited the most discouragement from smoking.

SUBMITTER: Hall MG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3920339 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Smokers' and nonsmokers' beliefs about harmful tobacco constituents: implications for FDA communication efforts.

Hall Marissa G MG Ribisl Kurt M KM Brewer Noel T NT

Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco 20131022 3

<h4>Introduction</h4>Legislation requires the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release information to the public about harmful constituents in tobacco and tobacco smoke. To inform these efforts, we sought to better understand how smokers and nonsmokers think about tobacco constituents.<h4>Methods</h4>In October 2012, 300 U.S. adults aged 18-66 years completed a cross-sectional Internet survey. The questions focused on 20 harmful tobacco constituents that the FDA has prioritized for com ...[more]

PMID: 24151139

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Dataset Information

Smokers' and nonsmokers' beliefs about harmful tobacco constituents: implications for FDA communication efforts.

Introduction

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Smokers' and nonsmokers' beliefs about harmful tobacco constituents: implications for FDA communication efforts.

Similar Datasets

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