Developing and Validating Measures of Absolute and Relative E-Cigarette Product Risk Perceptions: Single Items Can Be...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Tobacco Control Research

Background:

• Tobacco risk perceptions influence behavior and are shaped by communications.
• Existing e-cigarette risk perception measures lack consistency with tobacco researcher recommendations, validity, and reliability.
• There is a need for validated measures assessing specific e-cigarette risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate brief measures of e-cigarette risk perceptions.
• To assess absolute risks and risks relative to cigarettes, nicotine replacement therapy, and nicotine cessation.
• To provide researchers with reliable tools for studying e-cigarette risk perception.

Main Methods:

• Generated 63 items based on prioritized health effects from regulatory science experts.
• Assessed seven types of e-cigarette risk perceptions: absolute health/addiction, relative to cigarettes, pregnancy risks, relative to nicotine replacement therapy, and cessation.
• Conducted an online survey (N=1642) and performed reliability and validity analyses, reducing items to 21.

Main Results:

• Developed and validated 21 brief measures, including many single-item scales, for e-cigarette risk perceptions.
• Measures demonstrated validity, showing negative associations with current use, intentions, and skepticism, and positive associations with perceived harm and quitting intentions.
• Multi-item measures for many risk types were found to be redundant.

Conclusions:

• Brief, validated measures for multiple e-cigarette risk perceptions have been successfully developed.
• Single-item measures can effectively capture many e-cigarette risk perceptions.
• These publicly available measures can advance public health and industry research on e-cigarette risk communication.