Changing attitudes about concurrency among young African Americans: Results of a radio campaign

We created and evaluated an 8-month campaign of provocative radio ads to change attitudes about concurrent (overlapping) sexual partnerships among young African Americans. We created a concurrency attitude scale and compared its score distributions in independent samples of African Americans, ages 18–34 years, interviewed by telephone before (n = 678) and after (n = 479) the campaign. Pre- and post-campaign samples reflected similar response rates (pre: 32.6%; post: 31.8%) and distributions of personal characteristics. Reported exposure to concurrency messages was greater after the campaign (pre: 6.3%, post: 30.9%), and mean scores indicated less acceptance of concurrency (pre: 3.40 [95% CI 3.23, 3.57]; post: 2.62 [2.46, 2.78]). Score differences were not a function of differences in composition of the samples (adjusted means: pre: 3.37 [3.21, 3.53]; post: 2.62 [2.47, 2.76]). Findings demonstrate that a carefully targeted, intensive mass media campaign can change attitudes about concurrency, which should facilitate behavior change

Public Understanding of Cigarette Smoke Chemicals: Longitudinal Study of US Adults and Adolescents

Introduction: The US Food and Drug Administration has increased communication efforts that aim to raise public awareness of the harmful constituents (ie, chemicals) in cigarette smoke. We sought to investigate whether the public's awareness of these chemicals has increased in light of such efforts. Methods: Participants were national probability samples of 11 322 US adults and adolescents recruited in 2014-2015 (wave 1) and 2016-2017 (wave 2). Cross-sectional telephone surveys assessed awareness of 24 cigarette smoke chemicals at both timepoints. Results: The proportion of US adults aware of cigarette smoke chemicals did not differ between waves 1 and 2 (25% and 26%, p =. 19). In contrast, awareness of chemicals among adolescents fell from 28% to 22% (p <. 001), mostly due to lower awareness of carbon monoxide, arsenic, benzene, and four other chemicals. Belief that most of the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke come from burning the cigarette also fell from waves 1 to 2 (adults: 31% vs. 26%; adolescents: 47% vs. 41%, both ps <. 05). Participants were more likely to be aware of cigarette smoke chemicals if they had been exposed to anti-smoking campaign advertisements (p <. 05) or had previously sought chemical information (p <. 05). Cigarette smoke chemical awareness did not differ between smokers and nonsmokers. Conclusion: Awareness of cigarette smoke chemicals remains low and unchanged among adults and decreased somewhat among adolescents. The association of chemical awareness with information exposure via campaigns and information seeking behavior is promising. More concerted communication efforts may be needed to increase public awareness of cigarette smoke chemicals, which could potentially discourage smoking. Implications: Awareness of the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke may contribute to quitting. The US Food and Drug Administration is making efforts to increase public awareness of these chemicals. Two national surveys (2014-2017) found that chemical awareness was low among adults and adolescents. Although awareness did not change among adults, awareness among adolescents dropped over time. In addition, exposure to anti-smoking campaigns and chemical information seeking behavior were associated with higher awareness of chemicals in cigarette smoke. Campaigns and other efforts may be needed to increase awareness of cigarette smoke chemicals

Using Social Networks to Supplement RDD Telephone Surveys to Oversample Hard-to-Reach Populations: A New RDD+RDS Approach

Random digit dialing (RDD) telephone sampling, although experiencing declining response rates, remains one of the most accurate and cost-effective data collection methods for generating national population-based estimates. Such methods, however, are inefficient when sampling hard-to-reach populations because the costs of recruiting sufficient sample sizes to produce reliable estimates tend to be cost prohibitive. The authors implemented a novel respondent-driven sampling (RDS) approach to oversample cigarette smokers and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The new methodology selects RDS referrals or seeds from a probability-based RDD sampling frame and treats the social networks as clusters in the weighting and analysis, thus eliminating the intricate assumptions of RDS. The authors refer to this approach as RDD+RDS. In 2016 and 2017, a telephone survey was conducted on tobacco-related topics with a national sample of 4,208 U.S. adults, as well as 756 referral-based respondents. The RDD+RDS estimates were comparable with stand-alone RDD estimates, suggesting that the addition of RDS responses from social networks improved the precision of the estimates without introducing significant bias. The authors also conducted an experiment to determine whether the number of recruits would vary on the basis of how the RDS recruitment question specified the recruitment population (closeness of relationship, time since last contact, and LGBT vs. tobacco user), and significant differences were found in the number of referrals provided on the basis of question wording. The RDD+RDS sampling approach, as an adaptation of standard RDD methodology, is a practical tool for survey methodologists that provides an efficient strategy for oversampling rare or elusive populations