This application is being submitted in response to the Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) identified as NOT-CA- 20-039. The parent grant (1R01CA234082-01A1) aimed to evaluate the impact of social media advertising and influencer marketing of smokeless products on attitudes, beliefs, and use of smokeless products. Alcohol-related themes are common in smokeless tobacco conversations on social media and understanding the impact of exposure to this content can provide meaningful insights for tobacco control and alcohol use and abuse research. Social media data can serve as valuable measures of targeted marketing, public communication environment and norms, as well as other previously unmeasured contextual factors associated with health outcomes, yet, to date, no studies have examined the population level impact of alcohol-themed smokeless tobacco (ATST) social media marketing on initiation, use and co-use of smokeless tobacco and alcoholic beverage products, generally, or among youth in particular. The overall goal of the proposed project is thus to assess the amount and characterize the themes and sources of ATST posts on social media, as well as analyze the relationship between potential exposure to ATST social media messages on initiation, use and co-use of smokeless tobacco and alcohol products, with a particular focus on youth. This project will enhance the goal of parent R01 by examining youth- and new user marketing strategies at a finer grain by specifically focusing on alcohol-flavored smokeless product promotion and alcohol-themed promotion. This proposal is directly relevant to the NOT-CA-20-039 announcement and consistent with the intent of the Administrative Supplement as it will engage additional resources, data sources, and expertise, as well as take advantage of NORC?s existing analytical infrastructure and experience in social media research to examine digital marketing environment influences on initiation and co-use of alcohol and tobacco in youth. We will conduct linked analyses of two existing data sets: 1) social media data related to ATST marketing, 2) survey data from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBSS) that measures high school and middle school students? smokeless tobacco and alcohol use. Specifically, the aims of the proposed supplement are: to quantify the amount and characterize the themes and sources of ATST posts on social media (i.e., Twitter and Instagram) (Aim 1); to assess the impact of potential exposure to ATST social media content on youth smokeless and alcohol product use and initiation (Aim 2). While the parent project aims to explore differences in smokeless tobacco marketing and use across regions and populations and investigates the moderating impact of such underlying factors as tobacco control policies, we have not had the resources and expertise to study the potential impact of alcohol-related promotion of smokeless tobacco on tobacco initiation and consumption. By conducting linked analyses of ATST social media content and YRBSS data, this project will provide highly policy-relevant scientific evidence about the influences of alcohol-related marketing environment on tobacco and alcohol use and initiation among youth in the U.S.
Rural youth and young adults have the highest rates of smokeless tobacco consumption and have high levels of social media use. Alcohol-themed promotion of non-cigarette tobacco products is prevalent on social media, however, no studies to date have examined the consequences of exposure to this content on social networking platforms. This project will fill that gap by analyzing the relationship between Instagram and Twitter alcohol- related smokeless promotion and smokeless and alcohol use, to offer insights and further develop concepts and technologies to help prevent exposure to tobacco and alcohol product marketing on social media among youth and vulnerable populations.
