Developing the Message Assessment Scale for Tobacco Prevention Campaigns: Cross-sectional Validation Study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Communication
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Mass media campaigns effectively influence health behaviors.
• Ad testing is crucial for refining message execution before campaign launch.
• Existing scales like the 6-item perceived message effectiveness (PME) scale lack specificity for optimizing tobacco prevention ads, especially for youth.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Message Assessment Scale, a novel tool for testing tobacco prevention messages.
• To create a more specific and effective measure for evaluating ad content for youth and young adults.

Main Methods:

• Data from cross-sectional surveys (N=6108, ages 15-24) of antitobacco campaign ads were analyzed.
• Participants rated ads on 12 attitudinal items, including personal and cultural relevance and message comprehension.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified four key constructs: personally relevant, culturally relevant, strength of messaging, and negative attributes.

Main Results:

• Factor analysis revealed a robust four-factor model for message assessment.
• The four identified constructs were significantly correlated with main fact agreement and likelihood to vape.
• Ad performance was categorized, and construct correlations with campaign outcomes were examined.

Conclusions:

• The Message Assessment Scale offers a validated, expanded set of items for comprehensive ad effectiveness assessment.
• This new scale enhances existing measures for tobacco use prevention advertising.
• Findings can guide the optimization of ad executions and message delivery for youth and young adult tobacco prevention campaigns.