Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
College of Communication & Creative Arts, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, USA.
Subst Use Misuse. 2024;59(13):1972-1980. doi: 10.1080/10826084.2024.2392513. Epub 2024 Aug 28.
Virtual reality (VR) platforms can simulate the real world, whereas online surveys are efficient settings for assessing and testing information. In this study, the effects of presenting health warning labels (HWLs) on hookah venue menus were compared between these two message-testing settings.
Separate studies were conducted in VR ( = 96) and online survey ( = 213) settings. Participants in both studies were randomly assigned to view menus with or without HWLs. This secondary data analysis compared outcomes between settings after propensity score weighting to account for differences in age, race, marital status, and education between studies.
Significant between-study differences were noted for the effects of HWLs on people's perceptions of the absolute harm of hookah smoking ( = 0.0363), the relative harm of hookah compared to cigarettes ( < 0.001), the absolute addictiveness of hookah ( < 0.001), and the relative addictiveness of hookah compared to cigarettes ( = 0.0352). When outcome variables differed significantly between the HWL and control conditions in only one of the two studies, smaller p-values were identified for the online survey setting than for the VR setting.
This study represents the first direct comparison of the effects of hookah HWLs between two message-testing settings. HWLs tested in the online survey setting were associated with larger shifts in attitudes and beliefs than those tested in the VR setting, suggesting that the effectiveness of hookah HWLs on attitudes and beliefs may be moderated by the message-testing platform. Additional real-world experiments remain necessary to determine whether either setting can accurately assess the effectiveness of HWLs.
虚拟现实 (VR) 平台可以模拟真实世界，而在线调查是评估和测试信息的有效设置。在这项研究中，比较了这两种信息测试设置下呈现水烟场所菜单上健康警示标签 (HWL) 的效果。
在 VR（ = 96）和在线调查（ = 213）环境中分别进行了两项研究。两项研究中的参与者均被随机分配查看带有或不带有 HWL 的菜单。本二次数据分析在倾向评分加权后比较了设置之间的结果，以考虑研究之间年龄、种族、婚姻状况和教育程度的差异。
在 HWL 对人们对水烟吸烟绝对危害的看法（ = 0.0363）、水烟相对于香烟的相对危害（ < 0.001）、水烟的绝对成瘾性（ < 0.001）和水烟相对于香烟的相对成瘾性（ = 0.0352）方面，观察到研究之间存在显著差异。仅在两项研究中的一项中，HWL 条件和对照条件之间的结果变量存在显著差异时，在线调查设置的 p 值小于 VR 设置。
本研究代表了首次在两种信息测试设置之间直接比较水烟 HWL 效果。在线调查设置中测试的 HWL 与态度和信念的转变较大，而 VR 设置中测试的 HWL 则较小，这表明 HWL 对态度和信念的有效性可能受到信息测试平台的调节。还需要进行额外的真实世界实验，以确定这两种设置是否都可以准确评估 HWL 的有效性。
