Initial Validation of Oral Nicotine Pouch Purchase Tasks in a Crowdsourced Sample of Adult Pouch Consumers

Oral nicotine pouches are rapidly proliferating in the market. While pouches are often viewed as a harm reduction option, these products may elicit greater nicotine exposure and are linked to negative oral health effects. Behavioral economics provides a framework for studying the reinforcing value of these products; however, there are no validated measures for assessing demand for nicotine pouches.

This study evaluated behavioral economic purchase tasks for nicotine pouches. A crowdsourced sample of 147 adult pouch consumers (40% women; age, M(SD)=36.2(10.9); past-month pouch use, M(SD)= 15.7(9.36) days; Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence-Smokeless Tobacco Version, M(SD)=3.8(2.3) completed two hypothetical purchase tasks for individual pouches (free-$5/pouch) or tins containing 20 pouches each (free-$100/tin) to be consumed over a one-week period.

Task responding was prototypical with a similar percentage of nonsystematic data across versions. Participants consumed approximately 26 tins or 76 pouches when products were free (intensity), spent a total of $128 on tins or $46 on pouches (Omax), and had a breakpoint of $128/tin or $46/pouch. Observed and derived metrics exhibited expected within-task intercorrelations. After multiple comparison correction, significant correlations were observed for FTND and tins breakpoint (r =.23), tins and pouch elasticity and pouch Omax with past month pouch quantity-frequency (rs =.25-.31).

This proof-of-concept study provides initial validation of two versions of nicotine pouch purchase tasks. Future studies with larger samples reporting a broader range of pouch use are necessary to replicate and extend these preliminary findings.