Naturalistic Tobacco Retail Exposure and Smoking Outcomes in Adults Who Smoke Cigarettes Daily

The tobacco industry spends more than $8 billion annually in the US on marketing at the point of sale. Exposure to tobacco retail has been associated with smoking outcomes, but substantially less is known about how objectively logged everyday tobacco retail exposure is associated with smoking outcomes.

To assess preregistered hypotheses that individuals would report (1) greater craving and (2) more cigarettes smoked on days when their exposure to tobacco retail is higher than usual.

This multimodal, within-person cohort study combined objectively logged geolocation tracking, public tobacco retail location records, and ecological momentary assessment data. Eligible participants recruited from the GeoSmoking Study were aged 21 to 65 years, smoked at least 5 cigarettes per day over the previous 6 months, owned a smartphone, and were a resident of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Delaware. Data were collected from May 25, 2022, to June 10, 2024.

Exposure to tobacco retail stores was assessed using mobility data matched with locations of tobacco retailers across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Daily mean craving and daily number of cigarettes smoked were computed using ecological momentary assessment.

A total of 273 participants were included in the final analyses (mean [SD] age, 42.5 [10.7] years; 151 women [55.3%]). Multilevel models revealed support for both preregistered hypotheses. On days when individuals had more tobacco retail exposure than their own average, they reported significantly higher levels of craving (b = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.07; t3457 = 2.72; P = .01) and smoking significantly more cigarettes (b = 0.01; 95% CI, 0.0002-0.01; t3469 = 2.05; P = .04).

In this cohort study of individuals who smoke cigarettes daily, exposure to tobacco retail in their everyday lives was associated with increases in craving and smoking. These findings highlight the importance of retail exposure and smoking outcomes, information that is critical for developing effective tobacco control interventions and lays the foundation for broader health research on environmental factors that shape health behaviors.