Center for the Study of Tobacco, Department Health Behavior and Health Education, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR.
Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, Department of Psychology, College of Humanities and Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 Aug 4;23(8):1358-1366. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa272.
In 2018, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required that electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) manufacturers, packagers, importers, distributors, and retailers display an addictive or alternate warning statement on e-cigarette visual advertisements. Few studies have investigated the FDA-mandated and other warnings on social media. This study examined the prevalence and content of warning statements in e-cigarette-related YouTube videos.
In 2019, The Virginia Commonwealth University Center for the Study of Tobacco Products conducted bi-monthly (February-June) YouTube searches by relevance and view count to identify e-cigarette-related videos. Overall, 178 videos met the inclusion criteria. Staff coded each video for the presence of a visual/verbal warning statement, warning statement type (eg, FDA-mandated, addiction/tobacco, safety/toxic exposure, health effects), sponsorship, and tobacco product characteristics. A data extraction tool collected the video URL, title, upload date, and number of views, likes/dislikes, and comments.
Only 5.1% of videos contained FDA-mandated and 21.9% contained non-mandated warnings. All videos with FDA-mandated and 46.2% of non-mandated warnings were represented visually. Only 13.1% of industry-sponsored videos uploaded after the mandate effective date had an FDA-mandated warning statement and videos with FDA-mandated and non-mandated (v. no) warnings had significantly fewer views, likes, dislikes, and comments. Among all non-mandated warnings, 31.3% featured an addiction/tobacco, 18.8% a safety/toxic exposure, and 37.5% a health effects warning.
The prevalence of FDA-mandated warning statements in e-cigarette related YouTube videos was low. FDA enforcement of the warning statement mandate on YouTube could increase the public's understanding of the addictive nature of nicotine in e-cigarettes.
The FDA has the authority to regulate the advertisement and promotion of e-cigarettes on the Internet. These data can inform future FDA requirements related to the language content and visual representation of addiction/tobacco, safety/exposure, and health effects warning statements that appear in YouTube videos and other visual social media popular among young people. Such data would help consumers make informed decisions about purchasing e-cigarette products, using e-cigarettes, and avoiding unintentional harm related to e-cigarettes. In addition, these data may help social media platforms make decisions on whether they will prohibit advertisements that promote or facilitate the sale of tobacco products.
2018 年，美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）要求电子烟（e-cigarette）制造商、包装商、进口商、分销商和零售商在电子烟视觉广告上显示令人上瘾或替代警告声明。很少有研究调查 FDA 强制要求的和其他社交媒体上的警告。本研究调查了电子烟相关 YouTube 视频中警告声明的出现频率和内容。
2019 年，弗吉尼亚联邦大学烟草产品研究中心每月进行两次（2 月至 6 月）的 YouTube 搜索，以相关性和观看次数为依据，以确定电子烟相关视频。总体而言，有 178 个视频符合纳入标准。工作人员对每个视频是否存在视觉/口头警告声明、警告声明类型（例如，FDA 强制要求、上瘾/烟草、安全/暴露毒性、健康影响）、赞助以及烟草产品特征进行了编码。一个数据提取工具收集了视频的 URL、标题、上传日期以及观看次数、点赞/不喜欢、评论。
只有 5.1%的视频包含 FDA 强制要求的警告，21.9%的视频包含非强制要求的警告。所有带有 FDA 强制要求和 46.2%非强制要求警告的视频都是通过视觉方式呈现的。只有在强制令生效日期之后上传的 13.1%的行业赞助视频有 FDA 强制要求的警告声明，而带有 FDA 强制要求和非强制要求（有/无）警告的视频观看次数、点赞、不喜欢和评论明显较少。在所有非强制要求的警告中，31.3%的视频提到了上瘾/烟草，18.8%的视频提到了安全/暴露毒性，37.5%的视频提到了健康影响警告。
电子烟相关 YouTube 视频中 FDA 强制要求的警告声明出现频率较低。FDA 在 YouTube 上对警告声明强制令的执行可能会提高公众对电子烟中尼古丁令人上瘾的性质的认识。
FDA 有权监管互联网上电子烟的广告和促销。这些数据可以为未来 FDA 提出的与 YouTube 视频和其他受年轻人欢迎的视觉社交媒体中出现的上瘾/烟草、安全/暴露、健康影响警告声明的语言内容和视觉表现相关的要求提供信息。这些数据将有助于消费者在购买电子烟产品、使用电子烟以及避免与电子烟相关的无意伤害方面做出明智的决定。此外，这些数据可能有助于社交媒体平台就是否禁止宣传或促进销售烟草产品做出决定。
