Categorizing IQOS-Related Twitter Discussions.

(1) Background: The heated tobacco product IQOS, by Philip Morris International, is now available in over 55 countries, including the United States. Social media sites such as Twitter are often used to promote or discuss tobacco products, though prior research has not examined how IQOS is presented on Twitter. (2) Methods: This study collected and categorized Twitter conversations involving IQOS. A manual content analysis was performed on N = 3916 English tweets related to IQOS published internationally between 1 January 2020 and 30 June 2020. (3) Results: Most tweets were either online marketing for IQOS (32.3%) or personal testimonials related to IQOS use (34.2%). Personal testimonial tweets made harm reduction claims about IQOS either as an avenue to quit smoking/tobacco use (3.4%), or in comparison to combustible cigarettes (2.0%). Tobacco policy-related tweets were detected (13.9%), split between discussions of United States (4.9%) and international (4.4%) policies. News media tweets (14.2%) were also detected. (4) Conclusions: Our study suggests IQOS may be understood as a less harmful alternative to vaping and combustible cigarettes. Discussions also suggest IQOS is likely to be used to avoid clean air policies or used in areas in which smoking is restricted.

Impact of eHealth technologies on patient outcomes: a meta-analysis of chronic gastrointestinal illness interventions.

Gastrointestinal (GI) illness interventions are increasingly utilizing eHealth technologies, yet little is currently known about the extent of their impact on patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of the GI eHealth intervention literature. We used a comprehensive search strategy to locate studies. To be included, studies had to be a randomized controlled trial comparing an eHealth intervention condition against a no-treatment or waitlist control condition. Studies had to report data on at least one of the following patient outcomes: medication adherence, quality of life (QoL), psychological distress, illness-related knowledge, or number of patient visits to the clinic/hospital. Analyses weighted effect sizes (d) by their inverse variance and combined them using random effects meta-analytic procedures. K = 19 studies conducted in eight countries with a cumulative sample size of N = 3,193 were meta-analyzed. Findings indicated that GI eHealth interventions improved patients' QoL (d = .25, p = .008), psychological distress (d = .24, p = .017), medication adherence (d = .17, p = .014), and illness-related knowledge (d = .19, p = .002). GI eHealth interventions also significantly reduced the number of patient visits to the clinic/hospital (d = .78, p = .005). Our findings suggest that eHealth interventions hold promise in improving patient outcomes for those with GI illnesses. We suggest the next generation of GI interventions continue developing and evaluating the impact of technology using randomized controlled trial designs, and perhaps consider adapting existing efficacious interventions for burgeoning platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.

Pictorial Cigarette Pack Warnings Increase Some Risk Appraisals But Not Risk Beliefs: A Meta-Analysis.

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packs motivate smokers to quit, and yet the warnings' theoretical mechanisms are not clearly understood. To clarify the role that risk appraisals play in pictorial warnings' impacts, we conducted a meta-analysis of the experimental literature. We meta-analyzed 57 studies, conducted in 13 countries, with a cumulative N of 42,854. Pictorial warnings elicited greater cognitive elaboration (e.g., thinking about the risks of smoking; d = 1.27; p < .001) than text-only warnings. Pictorial warnings also elicited more fear and other negative affect (d = .60; p < .001). In contrast, pictorial warnings had no impact on perceived likelihood of harm (d = .03; p = .064), perceived severity (d = .16; p = .244), or experiential risk (d = .06; p = .449). Thus, while pictorial warnings increase affective and some cognitive risk appraisals, they do not increase beliefs about disease risk. We discuss the role of negative affect in warning effectiveness and the implications for image selection and warning implementation.

Topic Clustering of E-Cigarette Submissions Among Reddit Communities: A Network Perspective.

E-cigarette use in the United States has significantly grown in recent years. Widespread diffusion of e-cigarette content across social media communities may be contributing to this growth. In this study, we (1) explored topics related to e-cigarettes and vaping on Reddit and (2) examined the extent to which these topics clustered across distinct communities. We analyzed a total of N = 79,783 Reddit submissions posted between March 2017 and February 2018 that mentioned at least one e-cigarette or vaping keyword. We created a dictionary to classify submissions into seven different topics related to e-cigarettes and vaping. Submissions were also categorized into one of six mutually exclusive communities identified using subreddit meta-data. Our results indicate that e-cigarette and vaping content on Reddit is primarily about the buying and selling of e-cigarette products. Other common topics included how to build vaping devices, e-juice, and e-cigarette advice. Network correlation analyses found that the distribution of our seven identified topics varied significantly among general e-cigarette, drugs, and research/news subreddit communities. Findings from this study add to a growing literature investigating e-cigarettes and vaping on social media and also contribute to network-level theories by linking communities on Reddit to the diffusion of various depictions of e-cigarettes and vaping.

E-Cigarette Outcome Expectancies among Nationally Representative Samples of Adolescents and Young Adults.

Objectives: We conducted nationally representative surveys of adolescents and young adults to examine associations between e-cigarette outcome expectancies and e-cigarette use. Background: E-cigarette use among adolescents and young adults has grown rapidly in recent years, yet little research has examined the beliefs that may underlie this behavior among nationally representative samples. Methods:N = 1,298 adolescents (13-17) and 2,219 young adults (18-25) were surveyed using a probability-based web panel. Participants completed a survey that included a new outcome expectancy measure examining 3 positive (enjoyment, social influences, advantage over cigarettes) and 2 negative (health concerns, smoker association) expectancy domains and ever having used e-cigarettes [ever use]. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated a good fit of the outcome expectancies' factor structure to the data. All outcome expectancies were associated with e-cigarette use in both populations in univariate analyses. In multiple logistic regression models controlling for several covariates, higher expected enjoyment was positively associated with a greater likelihood of e-cigarette use (aOR = 2.10, p < .05) among adolescents. Among young adults, enjoyment (aOR = 3.08, p < .001) was positively associated with a greater likelihood of use while both health concerns (aOR = 0.70, p < .01) and smoker association (aOR = 0.73, p < .05) were negatively associated with e-cigarette use. Conclusions: This study suggests that expected enjoyment is robustly associated with e-cigarette use among both adolescents and young adults. Health concerns may also play a role in e-cigarette use. Implications for e-cigarette prevention efforts and future research directions are discussed.

Prevalence of child-directed and general audience marketing strategies on the front of beverage packaging: the case of Chile.

OBJECTIVE: Front-of-package (FOP) marketing strategies of a wide variety of beverages were catalogued to examine the prevalence of each strategy prior to a sweeping Chilean restriction of child-directed marketing aimed at reducing obesity-related disease among Chile's youth. DESIGN: Photographs of 1005 beverage packages were quantitatively content-analysed to code whether a variety of child-directed, health-oriented and other marketing strategies (e.g. sales promotions) were present on each product's FOP. Strategies were then analysed based on beverages' product category, total sugar, energy and tax status (beverages with added sugars are taxed at different rates). SETTING: Photographs were taken in six urban supermarkets in Santiago, Chile, representing five different supermarket chains. RESULTS: Beverages using child-directed characters or nature/fruit references were higher in total sugar and beverages with child-directed characters or childhood/family references were higher in energy than beverages without these respective strategies. Of the beverages taxed at the highest rate (greatest amount of added sugars), 49 % used nutrition and health appeals and 80 % used nature or fruit appeals. Plain waters and plain milks were less likely than other selected product categories to use health-oriented appeals or multiple FOP strategies in combination. CONCLUSIONS: FOP marketing on beverages varied according to the nutritional quality of the product, with heavier use of health-oriented and child-directed strategies in less healthy products. Marketing activities warrant continued observation to evaluate how industry responds to new marketing restrictions as these restrictions are evaluated in the light of existing taxes and other regulatory efforts to improve diets and reduce obesity-related disease.