Exploring smokers' perceptions of differing smokeless tobacco news messages

描述(由申请人提供)：无烟烟草产品(SLT)是烟草控制界减少危害辩论的中心，一些人认为无烟烟草产品对吸烟者的危害较小，另一些人担心这种宣传可能被误解为意味着无烟烟草产品是“安全的”，导致有害的人口水平后果。最近SLT的增长和卷烟公司将新型SLT产品作为吸烟替代品进行营销，使这场辩论成为一个更相关的公共卫生问题。此外，2009年的法律赋予FDA监管烟草的权力，为公司创造了一条途径，在未来可能将这些产品作为“修改的风险”进行营销，但FDA才刚刚开始制定这些新政策。尽管在如何传达SLT的相对风险方面缺乏共识，但我们的研究表明，关于SLT风险降低潜力的信息目前正通过新闻媒体传播，因此可能已经影响了人们对SLT的知识和信念。我们的研究还表明，新闻中的SLT风险信息有多种不同的表达方式。鉴于SLT信息对吸烟者尝试或改用SLT的风险认知和态度的潜在影响，需要研究这些不同的风险信息是否以及如何影响读者，特别是吸烟者。因此，针对PAR-12-035，这项混合方法R03研究旨在更好地了解吸烟者对新闻故事中所呈现的SLT信息的理解和潜在反应。具体地说，我们将1)对吸烟者进行深入访谈，以探索他们对不同SLT新闻故事信息和风险信息的解读，以及2)通过实验研究不同SLT信息对吸烟者对新SLT产品的认知和兴趣的影响。总体而言，这项研究可以为烟草新闻信息对公众的潜在影响提供重要的洞察，这是一个研究较少的领域，并提供有价值的线索，说明吸烟者可能会对不同的SLT风险信息做出更广泛的反应，这是FDA表示感兴趣的一个及时和与政策相关的研究领域。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Smokeless tobacco products (SLT) are at the center of a harm reduction debate in the tobacco control community, with some arguing that SLT can be a less harmful alternative for smokers and others worried that such promotion may be misinterpreted as meaning that SLT is "safe" resulting in harmful population level consequences. The recent growth of SLT and marketing of new types of SLT products by cigarette companies as smoking alternatives has made the debate a more relevant public health issue. In addition, the 2009 law giving the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco created a path for companies to potentially market these products in the future as "modified risk," but the FDA is just beginning to develop these new policies. Despite the fact that consensus is lacking on how to communicate the relative risks of SLT, our research indicates that messages about SLT's risk reduction potential are currently being communicated through the news media and thus may already be influencing people's SLT knowledge and beliefs. Our research also indicates that SLT risk information in the news is expressed in a variety of different ways. Given the potential influence of SLT information on smokers' risk perceptions and attitudes towards trying or switching to SLT, research is needed to investigate if and how these varying risk messages might impact readers, especially smokers. Therefore, this mixed methods R03 research study, in response to PAR-12-035, aims to better understand smokers' interpretations of and potential reactions to SLT information presented in news stories. Specifically we will 1) conduct in-depth interviews with smokers to explore their interpretations of different SLT news story messages and risk information and 2) experimentally examine the impact of different SLT messages on smokers' perceptions of and interest in new SLT products. Overall, this research can provide important insight into the potential impact of tobacco news messages on the public, an understudied area, and valuable clues as to how smokers might respond to different SLT risk messages more generally, a timely and policy relevant research area in which the FDA has expressed interest.