ArticleTobacco control2022
'It brings light to what you really put into your body': a focus group study of reactions to messages about nicotine reduction in cigarettes.
Article in Tobacco control, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Examining Spontaneous Cognitive and Emotional Reactions to Messages About Very Low Nicotine Cigarettes (VLNCs).Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · 2026Trial
- Independent and combined effects of very low nicotine cigarette messages and e-cigarette messages: a randomised clinical trial.Tobacco control · 2025Trial
- Effect of nicotine corrective messaging on nicotine-related beliefs in US adults: a randomised controlled trial.Tobacco control · 2025Trial
- Subjective experiences, contexts, and risk perceptions of very low nicotine content cigarettes and electronic cigarettes among people with depression and anxiety disorders who smoke.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Trial
- Educating the Public on the Health Risks of Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes: Results From a US-Based Convenience Sample.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Trial
- 'Light at the end of the tunnel': reactions to targeted and generally applicable reduced nicotine policy messages among priority populations of people who smoke.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- Advancing Support for Electronic Cigarette Control Policies in the United States: The Impact of Theory-Based Messaging Strategies.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Assessing the Impact of Messages About Reduced Nicotine Cigar Products Among People Who Use Little Cigars and Cigarillos: Insights From a Discrete Choice Experiment.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Article
- Associations of educational and marketing messages with beliefs about nicotine and reduced nicotine cigarettes.Preventive medicine · 2024Article
- Perceptions of a reduced nicotine policy and predictors of policy support: A nationally representative U.S. survey.Preventive medicine · 2024Article
- Messaging about very low nicotine cigarettes (VLNCs) to influence policy attitudes, harm perceptions and smoking motivations: a discrete choice experiment.Tobacco control · 2024Article
- Reactions to Messages About a Nicotine Reduction Policy: A Focus Group Study Among People Who Use Little Cigars and Cigarillos.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Article
- Testing the influence of harm reduction messages on health risk attitudes, injunctive norms and perceived behavioral control.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- "I Crave a Blunt, I Don't Crave a Cigarillo": A Focus Group Study on Perceptions of Nicotine and Addiction among US Adults Who Currently Smoke Little Cigars or Cigarillos.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- "I'm Bored and I'm Stressed": A Qualitative Study of Exclusive Smokers, ENDS Users, and Transitioning Smokers or ENDS Users in the Time of COVID-19.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
- Reducing Misperceptions About Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes: Insights From Adults Who Smoke.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Article
- Perceptions of Nicotine Reduction Policy in the United States: A Qualitative Study.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Article
- Do Smokers' Perceptions of the Harmfulness of Nicotine Replacement Therapy and Nicotine Vaping Products as Compared to Cigarettes Influence Their Use as an Aid for Smoking Cessation? Findings from the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Article
- Addicted to smoking or addicted to nicotine? A focus group study on perceptions of nicotine and addiction among US adult current smokers, former smokers, non-smokers and dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2022Article
- A review of the evidence on cigarettes with reduced addictiveness potential.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveIn 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a proposed regulation to lower nicotine in cigarettes to minimally addictive levels to help smokers quit. We sought to explore effective message strategies communicating about nicotine reduction in cigarettes across the different key audiences that the regulation is most likely to influence.
methodsWe designed four types of messages: efficacy messages, risk messages, a message about alternative sources of nicotine and a compensation message. Sixteen virtual focus groups were conducted in Atlanta and San Francisco in April-May 2020. Data were analysed in NVivo 12.0 using a thematic analysis approach.
findingsExclusive smokers were receptive to both efficacy messages and risk messages. Dual users were the only group that was open to resorting to alternative sources of nicotine. Former smokers were critical of these messages as promoting the new kinds of cigarettes and potentially encouraging initiation and relapse of smoking. Non-smokers felt that efficacy messages downplayed the risks of smoking and did not scare people away from smoking. Presenting information that very low nicotine cigarettes (VLNCs) still contain harmful chemicals made smokers question continued smoking in the absence of nicotine and view VLNCs as harmful.
conclusionsMessages communicating about nicotine reduction in cigarettes might help to motivate smokers to quit and can correct the misperceptions that VLNCs are less harmful. The FDA should consider specific target audiences and use different messages that complement each other in communicating about this regulation.
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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.