ArticleHarm reduction journal2015
Deficiencies in public understanding about tobacco harm reduction: results from a United States national survey.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Overview of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: A Systematic Review.American journal of preventive medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Effects of Modified Risk Tobacco Product Claims on Consumer Responses.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Trial
- Randomized Trial to Compare Smoking Cessation Rates of Snus, With and Without Smokeless Tobacco Health-Related Information, and a Nicotine Lozenge.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2019Trial
- Nicotine Risk Education and Its Impact on Knowledge, Perceptions, and Behavioral Intentions: A Scoping Review of U.S. Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Racial and ethnic variation in perceived relative harm of tobacco and nicotine products: an experimental study.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- College health providers' knowledge and confidence in addressing students' vaping: Evidence from a pilot study in New York State.PEC innovation · 2023Article
- Perceptions, intentions, and actual use of a consumer nicotine gum.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Beliefs and Characteristics Associated With Believing Nicotine Causes Cancer: A Descriptive Analysis to Inform Corrective Message Content and Priority Audiences.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Article
- Perceived harm of heated tobacco products, e-cigarettes, and nicotine replacement therapy compared with conventional cigarettes among ever and current heated tobacco users.Addictive behaviors reports · 2022Article
- Use of electronic cigarettes in the United States service member and Veteran populations: A narrative review (2019).Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2021Review
- Perception of the relative harm of electronic cigarettes compared to cigarettes amongst US adults from 2013 to 2016: analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study data.Harm reduction journal · 2020Article
- Adult perceptions of the relative harm of tobacco products and subsequent tobacco product use: Longitudinal findings from waves 1 and 2 of the population assessment of tobacco and health (PATH) study.Addictive behaviors · 2020Article
- Assessing comprehension and perceptions of modified-risk information for snus among adult current cigarette smokers, former tobacco users, and never tobacco users.Addictive behaviors reports · 2020Article
- Assessing likelihood of product use for snus with modified-risk information among adult current cigarette smokers, former tobacco users, and never tobacco users.Addictive behaviors reports · 2019Article
- The impact of flavors, health risks, secondhand smoke and prices on young adults' cigarette and e-cigarette choices: a discrete choice experiment.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2019Article
- Smokeless tobacco mortality risks: an analysis of two contemporary nationally representative longitudinal mortality studies.Harm reduction journal · 2019Article
- U.S. adult perceptions of the harmfulness of tobacco products: descriptive findings from the 2013-14 baseline wave 1 of the path study.Addictive behaviors · 2019Article
- Changing Perceptions of Harm of e-Cigarette vs Cigarette Use Among Adults in 2 US National Surveys From 2012 to 2017.JAMA network open · 2019Article
- Truth Telling about Tobacco and Nicotine.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Monitoring harm perceptions of smokeless tobacco products among U.S. adults: Health Information National Trends Survey 2012, 2014, 2015.Addictive behaviors · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTobacco products differ in their relative health harms. The need for educating consumers about such harms is growing as different tobacco products enter the marketplace and as the FDA moves to regulate and educate the public about different products. However, little is known about the patterns of the public's knowledge of relative harms.
methodsData were analyzed from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 4 Cycle 2, a population-representative survey of US adults conducted between October 2012 and January 2013 (N = 3630). Participants reported their perceptions of the relative risks of e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and different types of cigarettes compared to "traditional" cigarettes. Relative risk perceptions for each product type, as well as the consistency and accuracy of harm reduction beliefs, were analyzed.
resultsAbout 65% of the respondents accurately reported that no cigarettes were less harmful than any others. Slightly more than half of U.S. adults perceived e-cigarettes to be safer than regular cigarettes, a belief in line with current scientific evidence. By contrast, only 9% of respondents perceived some smokeless tobacco products to be safer, a belief strongly supported by the evidence. Only 3.5% of respondents had patterns of relative risk perceptions in line with current scientific evidence for all three modalities.
conclusionsThe discrepancy between current evidence and public perceptions of relative risk of various tobacco/nicotine products was marked; for most tobacco types, a large proportion of the population held inaccurate harm reduction beliefs. Although there was substantial awareness that no cigarettes were safer than any other cigarettes, there could be benefits from increasing the percentage of the public that appreciates this fact, especially among current smokers. Given the potential benefits of tobacco risk reduction strategies, public health education efforts to increase understanding of basic harm reduction principles are needed to address these misperceptions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.