Anti-tobacco mass media campaigns are a key tobacco control strategy and one increasingly used by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent and reduce tobacco use. Before devoting precious resources to implementing campaigns, however, it is critical to identify those anti-tobacco ads that will be most effective i deterring tobacco use. Actual tests of effectiveness, as demonstrated through randomized controlled trials, are exceedingly resource and time intensive. Therefore, to select campaign messages, message designers often rely on participants' perceptions of message effectiveness, also known as perceived message effectiveness or PME. An example would be having participants rate several ads using items such as this ad grabbed my attention and this ad was convincing, and then selecting only ads that score high on these items. Given the utility of this practice, there are a large and growing number of PME studies in the tobacco communication field. However, there is great variability in both the conceptualization of PME as well as its measurement. Moreover, it is unclear the extent to which we can have confidence in the use of PME measures to select effective anti-tobacco ads because little is known about whether PME is associated with actual message effectiveness. The purpose of this proposed study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of PME measures for tobacco control. This project proposes two specific aims.
In Aim 1, we will identify the conceptual and methodological characteristics of PME measures used in studies of anti-tobacco video and print ads by conducting a systematic review of the literature. We will achieve this by 1) searching research databases, the unpublished literature, and references in review and primary articles; 2) coding all relevant articles on participant and study characteristics, as well as conceptualization and measurement of PME; and 3) summarizing conceptual and methodological aspects of PME measures.
In Aim 2, we will identify investigators' purpose in using PME and synthesize both outcome and predictive findings from extant PME studies. We will achieve this by 1) coding investigators' purpose in using PME; 2) summarizing study findings where PME is used as an outcome variable; and 2) identifying studies that use PME as a predictor of ad effectiveness and conducting a random effects meta-analysis of the association between PME and ad effectiveness (e.g., tobacco quit intentions). This research is responsive to 2 FDA interest areas in funding announcement RFA-OD-15-004 - consumer perceptions of tobacco-related communications (#9) and effective communication strategies regarding the risks of tobacco products (#10). This synthesis will help optimize PME measures and will pave the way for the development of the next generation of theory- and evidence-based PME measures. Improving PME measures will allow anti-tobacco communication researchers and the FDA to better select video and print ads with the most potential for impact. Such optimized measures could also be adapted for selection of other FDA anti-tobacco communications such as graphic cigarette pack warnings.
This study will systematically review how researchers have assessed the effectiveness of anti-tobacco video and print ads. It will inform researchers' ability to assess which ads will be most effective, thereby increasing the public health impact of anti-tobacco campaigns. 1
