Recall of Tobacco Corrective-statements advertisements and Effects on Information-seeking Behavior

Objectives: In the 2006,landmark ruling, US District Judge Gladys Kessler instructed tobacco companies to disseminate corrective-statements (CSs) against their products through media advertisements.

Our objective: Assess impact of CSs language and ad framing on participants’ recall; Describe the association between exposure to CSs antismoking-advertisements and health-information seeking behavior among the US adult population, stratified by demographic characteristic.
Methods: We analyzed the most recent nationally representative data from the population-based cross-sectional survey of US adults, the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS-Cycle2, n =3,504) . Participants were exposed to CSs advertisements from November 2017 to May 2018.Data collection began in January 2018 and concluded in May 2018, and analysis took place from May 2019 to October 2019. Statistical significance defined as a P-value < 0.05; tests were 2-tailed.
Results: Exposure to CS was not independently associated with health-information seeking behavior. Among those exposed (n=1388), respondents’ education-level was associated, where people with less than high-school education sought out health-information significantly less (68.3%; 95%CI, 58.%3-78.3%).

Females had higher odds of seeking health-information compared with males (adjusted odds ratio, 2.57; 95%CI, 1.53 %-4.32%). Odds were higher among those who had a college or postgraduate education compared with less than high-school (adjusted odds ratio, 6.63; 95%CI, 2.94%-14.94%).

Analysis of behavior stratified by “advertisement category recalled” revealed that the majority (n=1,162) recalled message 1” health-effects of smoking”; meanwhile message 4 “the delivery of nicotine” was the least memorable (n=281). Participants exposed to message 3 “addictiveness of smoking” reported higher prevalence of seeking health-information (83.56 %; 95% CI, 79.26%-87.89%); compared to 76.18% of exposed to message 4 (95% CI, 63.78%-88.58%).
Conclusions: Variations in exposure and recall patterns of antismoking messages within subgroups. While some messages were easier to recall, others, perhaps more technical ones, were less likely to make an impact on participants’ memory or prompt healthy behavior.