Clinical trial NCT06501937: Influencer Marketing: a Survey-based Experiment Among Adolescents
Official title: The Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Imagery Alongside E-cigarettes in Social Media Influencer Marketing on Perceptions of E-cigarettes Among Adolescents: a Survey-based Experiment
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Vaping
Lead sponsor: University of Southern California
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2024-07-15
Enrollment: 664
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 13
Maximum age (years): 17
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Intervention model description: Videos featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Adolescents (N = 664) participated in the online survey-based experiment. They were randomly shown 10 videos, featuring influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities (experimental group), or e-cigarette promotion alone (control). After watching each video, participants rated perceptions of influencer credibility (i.e., honesty, trustworthiness, knowledge) on the scale of 0 (e.g., dishonest) to 100 (honest).

Among all participants, harm perceptions and appeal of e-cigarettes was assessed. Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes was assessed among never users of e-cigarettes. These outcomes were then compared among participants who perceived influencers as credible and those who perceived influencers as non-credible.

Detailed description: Adolescents (13-17 years of age) living in California were recruited by Qualtrics marketing research panel to participate in a survey on tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Qualtrics, a research panel agency, has been used in prior research to survey adolescents about their tobacco-related attitudes and behaviors. Participants were provided with a survey URL link. After completing informed consent, participants completed the survey online. The study was approved by the University of Southern California Institutional Review Board (UP-21-00352). Respondents were randomly assigned to watch 10 10-second long TikTok videos in either experimental (influencers promoting e-cigarettes alongside healthy lifestyle activities) or control group (influencers promoting e-cigarettes alone).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 13-17 years of age,
* English fluency,
* Current California resident.

Exclusion Criteria:

Not meeting these criteria:

* 13-17 years of age,
* English fluency,
* Current California resident.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Harm perceptions of e-cigarettes
timeFrame: one-time assessment after the experimental exposure (immediately post-treatment)
measure: Perceived appeal of e-cigarettes
timeFrame: one-time assessment after the experimental exposure (immediately post-treatment)
measure: Susceptibility to use e-cigarettes
timeFrame: one-time assessment after the experimental exposure (immediately post-treatment)
measure: Perceptions of influencer credibility
timeFrame: assessed 10 times immediately after each video
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Seattle
country: United States
facility: Online survey, Qualtrics
state: Washington
Study officials:
References: