Recall and Believability of the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign Among University Students

Abstract

Background Tobacco media campaigns are effective, but less is known regarding the impact on college students. Purpose The purpose was to test the effects of an on-campus Tips television campaign on frequency and believability of ads recalled and to assess demographic and personal factors associated with believability. Methods A quasi-experimental pre-post design was used to assess the 8-week campaign with three Tips ads. Two randomly-selected cohorts of college students (N = 1,593) from a large public university completed online surveys pre- and post-campaign. Group comparisons using chi-square tests, two-sample t-tests, and logistic regression, controlling for residence or cohort; predictors of believability using proportional odds modeling. Results Ads were recalled by significantly more students (68%) post-campaign. Believability for one or more ads was lower for males, undergraduates, those belonging to fraternity/sorority, and current polytobacco users (p<.05). Believability was greater for those who recalled seeing the ads more often (p<.05). Discussion Sub-groups of college students, including males and undergraduates, reported less ad believability, which should be considered when designing communication strategies. Translation to Health Education Practice Considering the potential impact and cost-effective nature of on-campus TV media campaigns, these ads need to be integrated into current campus tobacco control strategies.

Prevalence and reasons for Juul use among college students

“…A prior study of randomly sampled students from this university yielded a similar sample demographic profile (70% female, 81% White/non-Hispanic, 72% lower undergraduate). 19 In addition, the response rate is relatively modest (13.9%). This concern is mitigated given a recent study of college student survey response rates 20 which found that estimates of outcome measures were generally reliable even with response rates as low as 5-10%, as long as at least 500 students were invited to participate (invited 2,671 invited in this study).…”

Intention to quit smoking and polytobacco use among college student smokers

“…This study was part of a larger study to evaluate the impact of an 8-week CDC Tips from Former Smokers television campaign conducted at a large public university in the Southeastern U.S. ( Ickes et al, 2016 ) Two cohorts of students were surveyed two months apart prior to and after the campaign. We combined the sample of current smokers from these two cohorts for this analysis.…”