Policy, Advertising and Social Media Related to E-cigarette Consumer Behavior

 描述(由申请人提供)：或许行业、政策制定者、研究人员和其他人对社交媒体的广泛兴趣和重视是基于这样一个假设，即社交媒体活动必须影响个人行为，或者至少是对行为的反映。然而，很少或根本没有实证研究明确检验这是否属实--社交媒体是否影响了个人的消费者行为(或至少反映了这一点)？这项提议的主题--电子烟(或电子烟)--是解决这一问题的理想选择。这些由电池供电的尼古丁输送设备在过去五年里出现在美国市场，并在包括社交媒体在内的网络上拥有强大的影响力。在各州烟草控制水平和一系列电子烟广告的背景下，电子烟的认知度(2010年为40.9%，2012年为75.4%)和电子烟的使用率(2010年为3.3%，2012年为8.1%)大幅上升。根据社会生态模型和创新扩散，社会影响、广告和公共政策等背景因素在烟草使用和采用率方面发挥着重要作用。利用这一基础，我们将研究特定的烟草控制政策(根据美国肺脏协会的烟草控制状况)和电子烟广告(根据竞争跟踪广告数据)与社交媒体活动，特别是Twitter活动(数量、情绪和来自GNIP的来源)的关系。根据尼尔森消费者小组数据，我们还将研究与电子烟购买有关的这些更大的背景因素(烟草控制活动、电子烟广告、Twitter活动)，该数据记录了从2004年开始在60,000多名小组成员中以通用产品代码(UPC)级别进行的家庭购买。我们将通过邮政编码对这些数据集进行三角测量，并使用2011年1月至2013年12月的数据。我们的具体目标是：1)根据尼尔森消费者小组的数据，检查电子烟Twitter活动(数量、情绪、来源)与电子烟购买行为(数量)之间的关联；2)检查与电子烟Twitte活动有关的烟草控制政策(预防、戒烟、税收、无烟政策)和电子烟广告(传统、新媒体)；以及3)通过烟草控制政策、电子烟广告和电子烟Twitter活动来模拟电子烟购买。独一无二的三角测量 鉴于电子烟的出现，越来越多地使用新的社交媒体来推广电子烟、其他烟草产品和更广泛的物质使用，这些多层次数据的综合分析将产生及时和重要的信息；需要了解政策和广告对社交媒体活动以及最终对电子烟使用的影响。审查R21的前述目标将确定这些关联是否存在，并为一项更大规模的研究提供数据，包括电子烟的在线销售、更大范围的广告努力以及县或市内的烟草控制活动，以进一步推断和确定社交媒体对电子烟使用的影响。这可能为审查与使用其他物质有关的类似因素提供依据。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Perhaps the broad interest in and the importance placed on social media by industry, policymakers, researchers, and others is based on the assumption that social media activity must impact individual behavior, or at least be a reflection of behavior. However, there is little or no empirical research explicitly examining whether or not this is true - does social media impact individual consumer behavior (or at least reflect it)? The topic of this proposal - electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) - is ideal for addressing this question. These battery-powered nicotine delivery devices have emerged in the U.S. market in the past five years and have had a strong online presence, including within social media. Within the context of varied levels of tobacco control across states and a range of e-cigarette advertising, there were a dramatic increases in awareness (40.9% in 2010 to 75.4% in 2012) and use of e-cigarettes (3.3% ever use in 2010 to 8.1% in 2012). Drawing from the Socio Ecological Model and Diffusion of Innovation, contextual factors such as social influence, advertising, and public policy play an important role in tobacco use and rate of adoption. Using this foundation, we will examine specific tobacco control policies (per the American Lung Association's State of Tobacco Control) and e-cigarette advertising (per Competitrack Advertising Data) in relation to social media activity, specifically Twitter activity (volume, sentiment, and source from Gnip). We will also examine these greater contextual factors (tobacco control activity, e-cigarette advertising, Twitter activity) in relation to e-cigarette purchases, per the Nielsen Consumer Panel data, which records household purchases at the Universal Product Code (UPC) level among over 60,000 panelists beginning in 2004. We will triangulate these data sets through ZIP codes and use data from January 2011 to December 2013. Our specific aims are to: 1) examine the association between e-cigarette Twitter activity (volume, sentiment, source) and e-cigarette purchasing behavior (volume) per the Nielsen Consumer Panel data; 2) examine tobacco control policies (prevention, cessation, tax, smoke- free policy) and e-cigarette advertising (traditional, new media) in relation to e-cigarette Twitte activity; and 3) model e-cigarette purchasing through tobacco control policies, e-cigarette advertising, and e-cigarette Twitter activity over time and across states. The unique triangulation of these multilevel data will yield timely and important information given the emergence of e-cigarettes; the increased use of new and social media to promote e-cigarettes, other tobacco products, and substance use more broadly; and the need to understand the impact of policy and advertising on social media activity and ultimately the use of e-cigarettes. Examining the aforementioned aims of this R21 will establish whether these associations exist and provide data for a larger study including online sales of e-cigarettes, a larger range of advertising effors, and tobacco control activities within counties or cities to further extrapolate and contextualize the impact of social media on e- cigarette use. This may provide a basis for examination of similar factors related to use of other substances.