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Principal Investigator: Meghan Bridgid Moran
Organization: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $2,490,060
Funding agency: National Cancer Institute
PROJECT SUMMARY
Effective communication strategies are urgently needed to convey the relative risks of tobacco products
accurately among adults who currently use combustible tobacco while minimizing such appeal among youth
populations. There is a significant gap in research on the impacts of communicating the continuum of tobacco
products risks to diverse audiences. Current research has primarily been limited to cross-sectional studies of
single message exposures among adults. As such, there is insufficient evidence on how messaging about the
continuum of risk of tobacco products would influence the message response, receptivity, behavioral
precursors, and tobacco use behaviors among the diverse audiences that these messages must reach. The
long-term objective of this project is to optimize future public health communication on the continuum of risk for
tobacco products to minimize tobacco use harms among adults who use tobacco products and prevent youth
initiation and progression of tobacco product use. Our proposed project, in direct response to RFA-OD-23-021,
will assess the effects of FDA tobacco product risk continuum messaging on adult users of combustible
tobacco products (including those who have not yet been able to quit) and youth/young adults using an
integrated study design that captures the full range of relevant outcomes, from immediate message response
and receptivity to longer-term behavior. This project is guided by a theoretical framework integrating key
constructs in health communication (Message Impact Framework), persuasion (McGuire's persuasion
framework), behavioral economics, and behavioral change theories (Reasoned Action). Our specific aims are
to: (1) Generate rankings of messages and identify effective message features based on perceived message
effectiveness, and message comprehension; (2) Characterize effects of messages and message features on
response and receptivity, and precursors to behavior, including behavioral intentions, and (3) Specify
immediate and long-term behavioral effects of tobacco product risk continuum messages. Approach: We will
deploy a nimble framework to: refine messaging and develop control messages (message rating survey,
cognitive interviews); formally test message response, receptivity, and effects on behavioral precursors (online
national experiments, eye-tracking and neuroimaging); and assess immediate and long-term effects on
behavior (mobile device-based message delivery and laboratory smoking topography studies) among samples
of adults who use combustible tobacco, youth/young adults who use non-combustible tobacco, and
youth/young adults who do not use tobacco. Impact: The successful completion of this project will provide FDA
with clear, rigorous, and comprehensive evidence regarding the effectiveness of the specific messages
provided for this study, as well as theory-informed insights regarding broader message strategies to optimize
future public health communication on the continuum of risk for tobacco products to diverse audiences.
Terms: <21+ years old><Address><Adult><Adult Human><Age><Area><Attention><Behavior><Behavioral><Biochemical><Cognitive><Cohort Studies><Collaborations><Communication><Complement><Complement Proteins><Comprehension><Concurrent Studies><Cross Sectional Analysis><Cross-Sectional Analyses><Cross-Sectional Studies><Cross-Sectional Survey><Data><Depth Perception><Discipline><Disease Frequency Surveys><Ecological momentary assessment><Effectiveness><Exposure to><Future><Goals><Harm Minimization><Harm Reduction><Health><Investigators><Laboratories><Life Cycle><Life Cycle Stages><Long-Term Effects><Longterm Effects><Methodology><Nature><Nicotine><Nicotine Dependence><Outcome><Patient Self-Report><Perception><Persuasion><Persuasive Communication><Physiologic Psychology><Physiological Psychology><Population><Psychiatry><Psychophysiological><Psychophysiology><Public Health><Random Allocation><Random Selection><Randomized><Randomized, Controlled Trials><Relative Risks><Research><Research Design><Research Personnel><Researchers><Risk><Sampling><Science><Self-Report><Series><Site><Smoker><Smoking><Specific qualifier value><Specified><Stereopsis><Stereoscopic Vision><Study Type><Subgroup><Survey Instrument><Surveys><Testing><Theory of Change><Tobacco><Tobacco Consumption><Tobacco use><Work><Youth><Youth 10-21><adult youth><adulthood><ages><behavior change><behavior prediction><behavioral economics><behavioral prediction><cognitive interview><combustible tobacco><complementation><design><designing><experiment><experimental research><experimental study><experiments><eye tracking><handheld mobile device><health communication><health equity><insight><life course><mobile device><neural imaging><neuro-imaging><neuroimaging><neurological imaging><nicotine addiction><nicotine dependent><physiopsychology><prevent><preventing><psycho-physiological><randomisation><randomization><randomized control trial><randomly assigned><response><sound><study design><theories><tobacco product use><tobacco products><tobacco regulatory science><visual depth perception><visual tracking><young adult><young adulthood>