Young Adults' Perceptions of and Intentions to Use Nicotine and Cannabis Vaporizers in Response to e-Cigarette or Vaping-Associated Lung Injury Instagram Posts: Experimental Study.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

This experiment tested the impact of viewing Instagram posts about EVALI, varying in image and text valence, on young adults' perceived harmfulness of nicotine and cannabis products, perceived risk of nicotine and cannabis vaporizer use, and intentions to use nicotine and cannabis vaporizers in the future.

Why It Was Studied

Inhaling aerosolized nicotine and cannabis (colloquially called "vaping") is prevalent among young adults.

Instagram influencers often promote both nicotine and cannabis vaporizer products.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, young adults and adults.

Participants were randomly assigned to view Instagram posts from young people portraying their experiences of EVALI in a 2 (image valence: positive or negative) × 2 (text valence: positive or negative) between-subjects experiment.

After viewing 3 posts, participants reported the perceived harmfulness of nicotine and cannabis products, the perceived risk of nicotine and cannabis vaporizer use, and intentions to use nicotine and cannabis vaporizers in the future.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Positive images were attractive and aesthetically pleasing selfies.

The positive text was supportive and uplifting regarding quitting the use of vaporized products.

Negative images and text were graphic and fear inducing.

Ordinal logistic regression models assessed the main effects and interactions of image and text valence on perceived harmfulness and risk.

Binary logistic regression models assessed the main effects and interactions of image and text valence on intentions to use nicotine and cannabis vaporizers.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Nicotine, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Lung Injury, Cannabis, Intention and Nebulizers and Vaporizers.

Author keywords: EVALI, Instagram, e-cigarettes, harmful effect, risk perception, nicotine and social media.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2023 (Journal of medical Internet research), a journal based in Canada.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.