Effective Cigarillo Public Education Messaging for Black Young Adults

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Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section Project Summary Black/African American (Black) young adults have among the highest cigarillo smoking prevalence in the U.S. Cigarillos contain more tobacco and higher levels of carcinogens per gram than cigarettes, with inhalation levels as high as or exceeding that of cigarette smoking. Cigarillo smoking causes multiple cancers and pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases. Outcome expectancies (e.g., utility values and anticipated emotions) are associated with Black young adults’ cigarillo smoking. Additionally, some Black young adults misperceive cigarillos to be less harmful and addictive than cigarettes, which is associated with their cigarillo use. Cigarillos are under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s regulatory authority. The FDA is positioned to inform this vulnerable population about the health harm and addiction potential of cigarillos. Public education messaging is one effective strategy to provide accurate health information and increase harm perceptions, prevent and reduce tobacco use, and reduce tobacco-related health disparities. However, there has not been health communication studies examining effective cigarillo public education messaging for Black young adults, and how to optimize such messaging. This K99/R00 career award will help fill these gaps in identifying effective health communication strategies to communicate cigarillos’ harms to Black young adults ages 18 to 30 years. The specific aims of this proposed study are to: 1) develop and pilot test candidate cigarillo harm messaging among Black young adults at-risk for established cigarillo use; and 2) test the efficacy of cigarillo harm messaging on harm perceptions and use intentions, and explore its effects on use behaviors among Black young adults at-risk for established cigarillo use. With my mentors, I will develop and test the effects of public education messaging about cigarillos’ health harm and addiction potential alone as well as contextualized to address Black young adults’ outcome expectancies. I will pilot test candidate messages with Black young adults at-risk for established cigarillo use to examine their visual attention and self-report rating of perceived message effectiveness. Through an online randomized controlled trial, Black young adults at-risk for established cigarillo use will be randomly assigned to receive 1 of 3 message conditions: 1) harm; 2) harm contextualized with outcome expectancies; or 3) control messages to test intervention message effects on cigarillo harm perceptions, use intentions, and use behaviors. Participants will view two condition messages daily online for four weeks and complete self-report measures of cigarillo harm perceptions, use intentions and use behaviors at baseline, 1- and 3-month follow up. This K99/R00 career award will position me as a tobacco researcher focused on health communication for racial/ethnic minority young adults. It will provide the FDA with a sound scientific base on effective cigarillo public education messaging for Black young adults. These findings will also inform designing effective public education messages for other cigar and tobacco products.