Cigarette smoking topography among alternative school youth: why African American youth smoke less but are at higher long-term risk

LMFAO! Humor as a Response to Fear: Decomposing Fear Control within the Extended Parallel Process Model

This study seeks to analyze fear control responses to the 2012 Tips from Former Smokers campaign using the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). The goal is to examine the occurrence of ancillary fear control responses, like humor. In order to explore individuals' responses in an organic setting, we use Twitter data-tweets-collected via the Firehose. Content analysis of relevant fear control tweets (N = 14,281) validated the existence of boomerang responses within the EPPM: denial, defensive avoidance, and reactance. More importantly, results showed that humor tweets were not only a significant occurrence but constituted the majority of fear control responses.

Why We Must Continue to Investigate Menthol's Role in the African American Smoking Paradox

BACKGROUND

The disproportionate burden of tobacco use among African Americans is largely unexplained. The unexplained disparities, referred to as the African American smoking paradox, includes several phenomena. Despite their social disadvantage, African American youth have lower smoking prevalence rates, initiate smoking at older ages, and during adulthood, smoking rates are comparable to whites. Smoking frequency and intensity among African American youth and adults are lower compared to whites and American Indian and Alaska Natives, but tobacco-caused morbidity and mortality rates are disproportionately higher. Disease prediction models have not explained disease causal pathways in African Americans. It has been hypothesized that menthol cigarette smoking, which is disproportionately high among African Americans, may help to explain several components of the African American smoking paradox.

PURPOSE

This article provides an overview of the potential role that menthol plays in the African American smoking paradox. We also discuss the research needed to better understand this unresolved puzzle.

METHODS

We examined prior synthesis reports and reviewed the literature in PubMed on the menthol compound and menthol cigarette smoking in African Americans.

RESULTS

The pharmacological and physiological effects of menthol and their interaction with biological and genetic factors may indirectly contribute to the disproportionate burden of cigarette use and diseases among African Americans.

CONCLUSIONS

Future studies that examine taste sensitivity, the menthol compound, and their effects on smoking and chronic disease would provide valuable information on how to reduce the tobacco burden among African Americans.

IMPLICATIONS

Our study highlights four counterintuitive observations related to the smoking risk profiles and chronic disease outcomes among African Americans. The extant literature provides strong evidence of their existence and shows that long-standing paradoxes have been largely unaffected by changes in the social environment. African Americans smoke menthols disproportionately, and menthol's role in the African American smoking paradox has not been thoroughly explored. We propose discrete hypotheses that will help to explain the phenomena and encourage researchers to empirically test menthol's role in smoking initiation, transitions to regular smoking and chronic disease outcomes in African Americans.

Are you Scared Yet?: Evaluating Fear Appeal Messages in Tweets about the Tips Campaign

In March 2012, the CDC launched "Tips from Former Smokers," a $54 million national campaign featuring individuals experiencing long-term health consequences of smoking. The campaign approach was based on strong evidence that anti-tobacco ads portraying fear, graphic images, and personal testimonials are associated with attitudinal and behavior change. Yet it was also controversial; critics cited the danger that viewers might reject such intensely graphic messages. Tasked with informing this debate, our study analyzes the corpus of Tips campaign-related tweets obtained via the Twitter Firehose. We provide a novel and rigorous method for media campaign evaluation within the framework of the Extended Parallel Process Model. Among the relevant Tweets, 87% showed evidence of message acceptance, while 7% exhibited message rejection.