Trial reportBMJ open2021
Effects of brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on twitter: a randomised controlled experiment.
Trial report in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interventions to change vaping harm perceptions and associations between harm perceptions and vaping and smoking behaviours: A systematic review.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Smokers' Likelihood to Engage With Information and Misinformation on Twitter About the Relative Harms of e-Cigarette Use: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2021Trial
- Emotional Responses and Perceived Relative Harm Mediate the Effect of Exposure to Misinformation about E-Cigarettes on Twitter and Intention to Purchase E-Cigarettes among Adult Smokers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Impacts of the Massachusetts 2019 An Act Modernizing Tobacco Control on tobacco retailer settings: A multi-methods study.Addictive behaviors · 2024Article
- Dual-Vaping of Nicotine and Cannabis Among Adults Who Currently Use Tobacco Products in Five New England States.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Article
- Community and Opinion Leadership Effects on Vaping Discourse: A Network Analysis of Online Reddit Threads.Journal of health communication · 2023Article
- Measuring the burden of infodemics with a research toolkit for connecting information exposure, trust, and health behaviours.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2023Article
- Characteristics Associated with Young Adults' Intentions to Engage with Anti-Vaping Instagram Posts.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- How behavioral economics can inform the next mass vaccination campaign: A narrative review.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Review
- Article
- Exposure to Negative News Stories About Vaping, and Harm Perceptions of Vaping, Among Youth in England, Canada, and the United States Before and After the Outbreak of E-cigarette or Vaping-Associated Lung Injury ('EVALI').Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Article
- Knowing Well, Being Well: well-being born of understanding: The Urgent Need for Coordinated and Comprehensive Efforts to Combat Misinformation.American journal of health promotion : AJHP · 2022Article
- Effects of brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on Twitter on knowledge and perceptions of e-cigarettes.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo assess the effect of exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms found on Twitter on adult current smokers' intention to quit smoking cigarettes, intention to purchase e-cigarettes and perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes compared with regular cigarettes.
settingAn online randomised controlled experiment conducted in November 2019 among USA and UK current smokers.
participants2400 adult current smokers aged ≥18 years who were not current e-cigarette users recruited from an online panel. Participants' were randomised in a 1:1:1:1 ratio using a least-fill randomiser function.
interventionsViewing 4 tweets in random order within one of four conditions: (1) e-cigarettes are just as or more harmful than smoking, (2) e-cigarettes are completely harmless, (3) e-cigarette harms are uncertain, and (4) a control condition of tweets about physical activity. PRIMARY OUTCOMES MEASURES: Self-reported post-test intention to quit smoking cigarettes, intention to purchase e-cigarettes, and perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes compared with smoking.
resultsAmong US and UK participants, after controlling for baseline measures of the outcome, exposure to tweets that e-cigarettes are as or more harmful than smoking versus control was associated with lower post-test intention to purchase e-cigarettes (β=-0.339, 95% CI -0.487 to -0.191, p<0.001) and increased post-test perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes (β=0.341, 95% CI 0.273 to 0.410, p<0.001). Among US smokers, exposure to tweets that e-cigarettes are completely harmless was associated with higher post-test intention to purchase e-cigarettes (β=0.229, 95% CI 0.002 to 0.456, p=0.048) and lower post-test perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes (β=-0.154, 95% CI -0.258 to -0.050, p=0.004).
conclusionsUS and UK adult current smokers may be deterred from considering using e-cigarettes after brief exposure to tweets that e-cigarettes were just as or more harmful than smoking. Conversely, US adult current smokers may be encouraged to use e-cigarettes after exposure to tweets that e-cigarettes are completely harmless. These findings suggest that misinformation about e-cigarette harms may influence some adult smokers' decisions to consider using e-cigarettes. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN16082420.
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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.