US consumer interest in non-cigarette tobacco products spikes around the 2009 federal tobacco tax increase.
OBJECTIVE
This quasi-experimental longitudinal study monitored aggregate Google search queries as a proxy for consumer interest in non-cigarette tobacco products (NTP) around the time of the 2009 US federal tobacco tax increase.


METHODS
Query trends for searches mentioning common NTP were downloaded from Google's public archives. The mean relative increase was estimated by comparing the observed with expected query volume for the 16 weeks around the tax.


RESULTS
After the tax was announced, queries spiked for chewing tobacco, cigarillos, electronic cigarettes ('e-cigarettes'), roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco, snuff, and snus. E-cigarette queries were 75% (95% CI 70% to 80%) higher than expected 8 weeks before and after the tax, followed by RYO 59% (95% CI 53% to 65%), snus 34% (95% CI 31% to 37%), chewing tobacco 17% (95% CI 15% to 20%), cigarillos 14% (95% CI 11% to 17%), and snuff 13% (95% CI 10% to 14%). Unique queries increasing the most were 'ryo cigarettes' 427% (95% CI 308% to 534%), 'ryo tobacco' 348% (95% CI 300% to 391%), 'best electronic cigarette' 221% (95% CI 185% to 257%), and 'e-cigarette' 205% (95% CI 163% to 245%).


CONCLUSIONS
The 2009 tobacco tax increase triggered large increases in consumer interest for some NTP, particularly e-cigarettes and RYO tobacco.
Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Catherine L
CL
Jo
Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA.
John W
JW
Ayers
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
Benjamin M
BM
Althouse
Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Sherry
S
Emery
Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Jidong
J
Huang
Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Kurt M
KM
Ribisl
D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D013660:Taxes / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States
Non-cigarette tobacco products; Price; Public policy; Surveillance and monitoring