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Yale TCORS: Economics, Experiments and PATH Data: Creating Knowledge for Tobacco Regulation

Principal Investigator: Jody Sindelar

Funding Mechanism: National Institutes of Health- TCORS Grant

ID number: 1P50DA036151-01

Award Date: 9/30/2013

Institution:  Yale University

A wide array of tobacco product-related factors, including product attributes and informal/formal sources of information about risks, influence risk perceptions and interest in use. Investigators will conduct school-based and online experiments that will provide information about emerging combinations of product attributes in advance of widespread use. Experiments will be conducted in 4000 subjects, including youth (aged 13-17) in largely minority high schools, young adults (aged 18-25), and adult current smokers (aged 18 and older). Specific aims are: (1) to understand how individuals who vary by age, race, smoking status and socioeconomic status perceive and trade-off the potential risks, attributes, and design features of cigarettes, including low levels of nicotine, low levels of toxins, menthol, and sweet flavoring; (2) to examine perceptions of e-cigarette risk and attributes, specifically flavorings (menthol and sweet), levels of nicotine, and non-combustibility (i.e., ability to use despite smoking bans); (3) to study how source and media types (including graphic warning labels) affect the credibility of information about menthol added to cigarettes and e-cigarettes; (4) to analyze peer effects on e-cigarette use; and (5) to use secondary data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (PATH) and the Current Population Survey-Tobacco Use Supplement (CPS-TUS) (both of which include data on conventional cigarette smoking as well as emerging tobacco products) in combination with experiment results to predict the impact of potential regulations on tobacco use nationally and by subgroup. This project will yield data concerning risk perceptions and use intentions among youth and other vulnerable populations that may inform regulatory decisions related to product attributes and communication campaigns that convey the risks of product use.

Yale Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS) Related Resources

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