Clinical trial NCT04249219: Responses to E-Cigarette Advertising
Official title: Young Adults Responses to E-Cigarette Advertisement Features and the Effect of Restricting Features on Tobacco Use
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: EARLY_PHASE1
Conditions: E-Cig Use
Lead sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Worcester
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
First posted: 2020-01-30
Enrollment: 62
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 26
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: While conventional cigarette use continues to decline among youth and young adults, e-cigarette (EC) use is on the rise. The use of ECs during young adulthood, particularly 18 years of age, is especially alarming because it is not only a critical period in development but also a time when tobacco use is established. Additionally, the tobacco industry targets individuals of this age with the hope that they will one day progress to using combustible cigarettes. Advertising may be one of the reasons leading young people to use ECs, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now has the authority to regulate EC advertisement features. The goal of the study is to determine which EC ad features most strongly influence young adults' attitudes, susceptibility, and intentions to use ECs. Fifteen ads from the most popular EC brands that employ a brand, product descriptions, and modeling features were selected. Young adults who are susceptible to EC use will come into the lab and view these ads. During exposure, they will be assessed for real-time visual attention using eye-tracking, orienting responses using heart rate, and arousal using skin conductance as well as pre- and post-ad self-report measures of attitudes, susceptibility, and behavioral intentions. These factors will help determine the most high impact features, which will be associated with the greatest visual attention, orienting responses, and arousal levels and changes in attitudes. Findings from this study will provide public health officials important and urgently needed information as to what advertising features are contributing to the sharp rise in the use of ECs among young adults.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 18-26 years old,
* Fluent in English,
* Biochemically confirmed abstinence combusted tobacco or marijuana (eCO: exhaled carbon monoxide \<6 parts per million) at time of visit
* Reporting never trying an e-cigarette, not even a puff OR reporting having used an e-cigarette in the past but has not used in the past 30 days
* Susceptibility to EC use, will be determined using the Susceptibility to Use Tobacco Products questionnaire

Exclusion Criteria:

* Younger than 18 years or older than 26 years
* Not fluent in English
* Not confirmed abstinent of combusted tobacco or marijuana
* Use of an e-cigarette
* Not susceptible to e-cigarette use

Primary outcomes:
measure: Attention to Specific ad Feature
timeFrame: Change from the first second of viewing to each subsequent second of the intervention (10 seconds per ad), averaged for each participant.
measure: Arousal
timeFrame: The average amplitude of skin conductance peaks over the 10 second viewing window for each ad brand.
measure: Attention to Specific ad Feature
timeFrame: Duration of seconds spent on all areas of interest during 10 second viewing window for each ad brand
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Motivations to Avoid E-cigarettes
timeFrame: Immediately after viewing each ad
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Worcester
country: United States
facility: University of Massachusetts Medical School
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: UMass Medical School
name: Elise M Stevens, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: