Abstract
Awareness and outcomes of a multi-channel vaping cessation campaign among California young adults 18-29
APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo
Background. Data from the 2019-2020 Online California Adult Tobacco Survey revealed nearly 70% of young adults who vape plan to quit in the next 6 months. In response, California launched a young adult vaping cessation campaign (“campaign ) in the summer of 2021. The campaign emphasized empathy and understanding for the difficult quit journey, rather than elevating the negative health impacts of using tobacco. Ads aired on radio, digital media, and social media and promoted a text-based quitting intervention. We estimated awareness of the campaign and campaign impact on targeted beliefs, and awareness and use of quit services.
Methods. Data come from 30 waves of an online monthly survey of adults in California from August 14, 2019 to December 20, 2021. Analyses are weighted to reflect the population characteristics of California. Analysis was limited to young adults aged 18-29 (n=6,668). Campaign “dose was measured by past-quarter purchased weekly advertising impressions across video, audio, and display channels the campaign used and were linked to survey respondents based on survey timing. We modeled campaign-targeted outcomes as a function of past quarter impressions (scaled to the average 3-month impressions purchase), controlling for demographics, education, income, and tobacco product use, among others.
Results. By the end of the campaign 70% of young adults in California had seen any campaign ad, while awareness of specific video ads ranged from 17.1% to 39.6%. Ad impressions were associated with increased awareness of available services to help people quit smoking or vaping among all young adults who vape, Hispanic/Latino young adults who vape, and LGBTQ young adults who vape or use other tobacco. Campaign impressions were also associated with agreement that “quitting smoking or vaping takes multiple attempts among Black young adults (OR =1.78, p<.05). While we found no association between impressions and agreement that “it is ok if a person does not succeed in quitting on the first try for any audience, overall agreement with this statement was already high (80%+).
Conclusion. The campaign reached a substantial proportion of young adult Californians. Our results indicate that increased exposure to the campaign was associated with increased awareness of services to help people quit smoking or vaping among young adults, particularly Hispanic and LGBTQ young adults. The campaign was also associated with agreement that quitting can take multiple attempts among Black young adults, indicating a positive effect of the campaign on that audience’s realistic beliefs around quitting.