Pediatrics/Adolescent Medicie, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
Statistics, Stanford University Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford, California, USA.
Tob Control. 2020 Dec;29(e1):e18-e24. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055318. Epub 2020 Feb 6.
Philip Morris International (PMI) is seeking Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) authorisation to market IQOS as a modified risk tobacco product and to make marketing claims of reduced risk and reduced exposure. Such claims may be misunderstood by youth, thereby increasing their risk for tobacco initiation.
To assess youth (mean age 19.3, SD=1.7) understanding and perceptions of PMI's proposed consumer marketing claims of reduced risk and reduced exposure, we embedded a randomised controlled experiment into a survey of 450 California youth (April to August 2018). Participants were randomised to see 'reduced exposure', 'reduced risk' or neither claim. Perceptions of IQOS-related health risks and general harm and understanding of the term 'switching completely' as used in PMI's proposed claims were compared.
Mean expectancies to experience specific health risks did not differ by claim exposure. The reduced exposure group's perceptions of general harm did not differ from those of controls nor from the reduced risk group. The reduced risk group had the largest proportion who perceived IQOS as moderately/less harmful (n=78, 52%); controls the largest proportion perceiving IQOS as quite/extremely harmful (n=91, 63%). While 71% of the sample understood the term 'switch completely' correctly as used in the reduced risk (n=194, 71%) and reduced exposure (n=206, 72%) claims, more than 1 in 4 did not.
FDA and other regulators must use caution when considering allowing claims of reduced risk or reduced exposure to appear on retail tobacco packaging. Youth misunderstand such claims, and misperceptions of harm are known to lead to tobacco-use initiation.
菲利普莫里斯国际公司（PMI）正在寻求美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）的授权，将 IQOS 作为一种改良风险烟草产品进行营销，并对其低风险和低暴露的特性进行营销宣传。此类宣传可能会被年轻人误解，从而增加他们开始吸烟的风险。
为了评估年轻人（平均年龄 19.3 岁，标准差=1.7）对菲利普莫里斯国际公司（PMI）提出的降低风险和降低暴露的消费者营销宣传的理解和看法，我们在对加利福尼亚州 450 名年轻人（2018 年 4 月至 8 月）进行的调查中嵌入了一项随机对照实验。参与者被随机分配到“低暴露”、“低风险”或两者都没有的宣传中。比较了与 IQOS 相关的健康风险、一般危害的看法以及对 PMI 拟议声明中“完全转换”一词的理解。
按宣传接触情况划分，对特定健康风险的预期均值并无差异。低暴露组对一般危害的看法与对照组和低风险组没有差异。低风险组认为 IQOS 中等/低危害的比例最大（n=78，52%）；对照组认为 IQOS 相当/非常有害的比例最大（n=91，63%）。尽管 71%的样本正确理解了“完全转换”一词在低风险（n=194，71%）和低暴露（n=206，72%）宣传中的用法，但仍有超过 1/4 的人没有正确理解。
FDA 和其他监管机构在考虑允许降低风险或降低暴露的宣传出现在零售烟草包装上时必须谨慎。年轻人对这些宣传有误解，而对危害的误解已知会导致吸烟行为的开始。
