Discrete choice experiment to evaluate preferences for tailored social media messages for vaping initiation prevention among sexual and gender minority youth.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth are at high risk for vaping, yet few interventions are tailored toward this population. To address this gap, we explored SGM youth's preferences for anti-vaping messages to inform the development of tailored anti-vaping campaigns. Participants were 245 SGM-identifying US youth, ages 13-18 years. Participants completed a discrete choice experiment that assessed which types of images were preferred by SGM youth for a social media anti-vaping campaign. Images varied on two attributes: SGM tailoring (none, low, high), and number of people in the image (1, 2, 3 + people). Choice-based conjoint analysis (hierarchical Bayesian estimation) was conducted utilizing Sawtooth Software. Tailoring had higher importance for image selection than number of people. Images with high SGM tailoring were most preferred, and images with no tailoring were least preferred. Most preferred images contained two people with high tailoring and 3 + people with no or low tailoring. The least preferred images included 3 + people and high tailoring. Tailoring anti-vaping messaging for SGM youth may increase the likelihood that youth will notice, engage with, and share the content with peers. These findings provide insight into components that may increase the efficacy of preventative anti-vaping social media campaigns for SGM youth.