The effectiveness of anti-vaping health communication campaigns among high school and college students in the U.S

TL;DR

This paper reviews anti-vaping health campaigns to find out which messages are most effective in reducing vaping among teens and young adults.

Contribution

The study identifies specific message themes that decrease vaping tendency and provides recommendations for improving anti-vaping communication.

Findings

Messages highlighting specific health harms and perceived risk are most effective in reducing vaping.

Messages about nicotine addiction are least effective.

Recommendations include new FDA warning labels and structural changes to limit youth access to vaping products.

Abstract

This policy review looks at the exact message themes used in anti-vaping health communication campaigns, PSAs, and warning labels to determine how they can be improved to decrease vaping initiation and encourage cessation among adolescents and young adults.

Two meta-analyses, one on anti-vaping campaigns and another on vaping advertisements are reviewed in addition to one retrospective on tobacco warning labels. Overall, messages that reveal specific health harms and increase perceived risk are most likely to decrease vaping tendency.

A total of 16 studies are analyzed assessing the viewpoints of 21,427 people regarding how they feel about terminology used in several types of anti-vaping messages.

Multiple recommendations are made regarding how to improve the efficacy of current anti-vaping campaigns. Among several other factors, messages that denote the health consequences of vaping and chemicals contained in vapor products are the most effective. Meanwhile, messages that warn that nicotine is addictive are deemed the least effective.

Implications of these findings for policymakers include the need for a new FDA warning label that includes specific health implications of vape and nicotine use; Structural changes to restrict youth and young adult access to vape products; as well as guidance regarding how to use social media to disseminate information on the dangers of vaping.