Contextual Influences and Campaign Awareness Among Young Adults: Evidence from the National truth® Campaign.
Mass media campaigns have been found to shape the public's knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior around tobacco. This study examines the influence of contextual factors with respect to awareness of the national truth® campaign, a mass media, branded tobacco use prevention campaign, among a sample of young adults (n = 2,804) aged 24-34 years old; these respondents were within the age range for both the primary and secondary targets of the campaign during the period (2000-2007) when the campaign was airing television advertising at consistently high levels. Mulitvariable models reveal lower educational attainment and Hispanic ethnicity as significant contextual factors predictive of lower campaign awareness, controlling for media use. In contrast, gender, state tobacco control policy, sensation-seeking, current smoking status, and community-level SES variables were not significantly associated with campaign awareness. Further research is needed to identify the mechanisms through which public education campaigns operate, particularly among disadvantaged communities.
a American Legacy Foundation; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; New York University Global Institute of Public Health.
Donna M
DM
Vallone
Vinu
V
Ilakkuvan
Haijun
H
Xiao
Jennifer
J
Cantrell
Jessica
J
Rath
Elizabeth
E
Hair
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D055815:Young Adult
campaign awareness; contextual factors; mass media campaigns; tobacco; young adults