Communicating about Nicotine and Differential Risks of Tobacco Products

摘要 美国食品和药物管理局(FDA)潜在的突破性计划，以减少与烟草相关的 通过将燃烧香烟中的尼古丁降低到最低成瘾水平而导致的死亡和疾病有许多 挑战。烟草行业及其盟友辩称，这将导致黑市飙升，并 公众和政治上的强烈反对。一些人警告说，吸烟者会认为尼古丁含量减少的香烟 有害的，这会阻止戒烟，类似于“轻”和“温和”的描述如何导致许多健康意识 吸烟者继续吸烟。为了最大限度地发挥这一可能挽救生命的政策的好处，有必要 制定关于各种烟草产品中的尼古丁及其健康风险的有效沟通方式 使用含有不同水平尼古丁的产品，如燃烧香烟和电子尼古丁 投放系统(完)。一种很有前途的通信策略是组合关于Reduced的消息 燃烧香烟中的尼古丁，以及关于其他尼古丁输送产品风险较低的信息(即， “经修改的风险索赔”)。我们的中心假设是，这两种类型的消息组合在一起具有更大的 比任何一种单独的类型都有积极的影响。这可能是因为修改后的风险报文能够降低 消极的情绪反应和对减少尼古丁信息的反应。然而，这种沟通策略 几乎仍未被探索。迫切需要研究来检查这两种类型的消息，因为它们 介绍FDA关于尼古丁和烟草监管的新的全面计划的两个方面。这个项目将 通过追求以下具体目标提供研究：(1)开发关于减少的初步信息 使用定性焦点小组对燃烧的烟草产品中的尼古丁进行量化；(2)量化 离散选择实验研究减少尼古丁的通讯中不同类型的信息； 测试关于燃烧的烟草产品中减少尼古丁的信息在修改的上下文中的影响 具有全国代表性样本的随机临床试验中新型烟草产品的风险陈述 目前吸烟者、双重吸烟者和年轻人(18-29岁)非吸烟者的比例。该项目将使用 来自通信和决策科学的见解，以产生将有助于科学的数据 告知FDA有关尼古丁的产品审查、产品标准和公众教育方面的监管行动 以及烟草产品的不同风险。

ABSTRACT The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) potentially groundbreaking plan to reduce tobacco-related death and disease by lowering nicotine in combusted cigarettes to minimally addictive levels has many challenges. The tobacco industry and its allies argue that it would lead to a skyrocketing black market and public and political backlash. Some caution that smokers would view reduced nicotine cigarettes as less harmful, which would deter quitting, similar to how “light” and “mild” descriptors caused many health-conscious smokers to continue smoking. To maximize the benefits of this potentially life-saving policy, it is necessary to develop effective ways to communicate about nicotine in various tobacco products and about the health risks of using products that have different levels of nicotine, such as combusted cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). One promising communication strategy is to combine messages about reduced nicotine in combusted cigarettes with messages about lower risks of other nicotine-delivering products (i.e., “modified risk claims”). Our central hypothesis is that the two types of messages in combination have greater positive impact than either type alone. This might be due to modified risk messages being able to mitigate negative emotional reactions and reactance to reduced nicotine messages. Yet this communication strategy remains virtually unexplored. Research is sorely needed to examine these two types of messages as they present both sides of the FDA’s new comprehensive plan for nicotine and tobacco regulation. This project will provide that research by pursuing these specific aims: (1) Develop preliminary messages about reduced nicotine in combusted tobacco products using qualitative focus groups; (2) Quantify the relative importance of different types of information in communications about reduced nicotine using Discrete Choice Experiment; (3) Test the impact of messages about reduced nicotine in combusted tobacco products in the context of modified risk statements for novel tobacco products in a randomized clinical trial with a nationally representative sample of adult current exclusive smokers, dual users, and young adult (18-29) non-smokers. This project will use insights from communication and decision sciences to produce data that will contribute to the science that informs FDA regulatory actions around product review, product standards, and public education on nicotine and the differential risks of tobacco products.