Relative Trust of Information Sources: Sociodemographic Differences and Associations with Smoking Status and Electronic Cigarette Use

Authors:

Rhyan Vereen (Presenter)
American Cancer Society

Lee Westmaas, American Cancer Society
Jeuneviette Bontemps-Jones, American Cancer Society
Kassandra Alcaraz, American Cancer Society

Public Health Statement: Smoking behavior may be influenced by receptivity to information from tobacco companies.

Purpose: To identify sociodemographic subgroups with more trust in tobacco product (tobacco and e-cigarette) companies than health professionals and explore associations between this relative trust and tobacco product use.

Methods/Approach: Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 4, FDA Cycle) data were analyzed (N=3738). Two relative trust measures were developed identifying respondents who trust tobacco product companies as much or more than health professionals for information about the health effects of tobacco products versus those who place more trust in health professionals. Dependent variables were smoking status (current, former, never) and e-cigarette use (ever, never). Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression were conducted in SAS 9.4 using jackknife replicate weights.

Results: Respondents who trusted tobacco product companies as much or more than health professionals were disproportionately from racial/ethnic minority groups or had low levels of income or education (all p-values <0.05). Relative trust was not associated with smoking status. After controlling for demographics, respondents who trusted e-cigarette companies as much or more than health professionals had 1.84 higher odds (95% CI: 1.14, 2.96) of e-cigarette use, compared to respondents who placed higher trust in health professionals.

Conclusions/Implications: Findings suggest that population subgroups with relatively high trust in e-cigarette companies are more prone to e-cigarette use. Targeted communication strategies may be needed for underserved populations and to counter messaging from e-cigarette companies.