Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
REACH Lab, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2024 May 1;258:111270. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2024.111270. Epub 2024 Mar 20.
Young adults' e-cigarette use is a leading public health concern. Using messages from credible sources can help improve message acceptance, yet little research has examined the role of source credibility on young adults' responses to e-cigarette education messages.
We examined the impact of source on young adults' perceptions of e-cigarette education messages and e-cigarettes. In July 2022, we conducted an experimental study using an online sample of young adults (N=459, M=24.6) who were randomized to one of three source conditions: expert, friend, or influencer, and viewed e-cigarette education messages. We used one-way ANOVA to estimate the association between the conditions and outcomes (perceived source credibility, message trust, curiosity, use interests, perceived message effectiveness, beliefs, harm perceptions, and intentions to refrain).
The expert condition was associated with significantly higher perceived source credibility (vs. friend, influencer; p<0.001), message trust (vs. friend, influencer; p<0.001), and curiosity (vs. influencer; p's<0.05).
Public health campaigns may leverage health experts to deliver e-cigarette education messages targeting young adults to improve effectiveness of the messages.
年轻人使用电子烟是一个主要的公共卫生关注点。使用可信来源的信息可以帮助提高信息的接受度，但很少有研究探讨来源可信度对年轻人对电子烟教育信息的反应的影响。
我们研究了来源对年轻人对电子烟教育信息和电子烟的看法的影响。在 2022 年 7 月，我们使用一个在线的年轻人样本（N=459，M=24.6）进行了一项实验研究，这些年轻人被随机分配到三个来源条件之一：专家、朋友或影响者，并观看电子烟教育信息。我们使用单因素方差分析来估计条件和结果之间的关联（感知来源可信度、信息信任、好奇心、使用兴趣、感知信息有效性、信念、危害认知和意图克制）。
专家条件与感知来源可信度（与朋友、影响者相比，p<0.001）、信息信任（与朋友、影响者相比，p<0.001）和好奇心（与影响者相比，p<0.05）显著更高相关。
公共卫生运动可以利用健康专家来传递针对年轻人的电子烟教育信息，以提高信息的有效性。
