Grant Number:	1R21CA198824-01A1 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Travers, Maansi
Organization:	Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp
Project Title:	Assessing the Impact of Differing Pharmacy Tobacco Retail Displays on Smokers Awareness, Perceptions, and Intentions to Quit
Fiscal Year:	2016

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tobacco point-of-sale (PoS) displays and promotions have come to constitute the majority of tobacco industry advertising and marketing expenditures in the U.S. In 2012, the tobacco industry spent $9.6 billion on cigarette and smokeless tobacco marketing in the U.S., 84% of which was spent on marketing in the retail environment, and 94% of that spent on strategies specifically designed to reduce cigarette prices through price-related discounts. PoS exposures are found to increase youth smoking initiation, cue unplanned purchases, increase craving and relapse, and influence social norms about smoking, perceived access to cigarettes, brand switching, and support for stronger tobacco control policies. However, very little research has been done to determine the impact of smoking cessation messages at the PoS and how these messages may influence intention to quit and quitting behavior. In the U.S., pharmacists and pharmacies play a significant role in health care, working not only to provide medication, but often counseling individuals and their families on the use of those medications. The sale of tobacco in pharmacies, a product that when used as intended is associated with more than 480,000 deaths per year in the U.S., is inconsistent with this role. While the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 does not allow the FDA to ban sales of tobacco in a specific type of retail outlet, states and local jurisdictions are abl to self-regulate (e.g., San Francisco, Massachusetts have passed laws banning the sales of tobacco in pharmacies). After the nation's largest pharmacy chain, CVS, ceased selling tobacco in September 2014, it converted the available display behind the cash registers into a marketing vehicle for their "Let's Quit Together" retail health clinic. At Walgreens (ranked #2) the principa display area remains saturated with tobacco products, with cessation aids relegated to the far side of the display wall, and no cessation message of any kind. At Rite Aid (ranked #3) a branded campaign "Quit for you" appears directly above the traditional array of tobacco products. These three very different approaches have not only changed the point-of-sale displays for tobacco products, but also the point-of-sale messages for smoking cessation. The goal of this timely project is to take advantage of an on-going natural experiment in the three largest US pharmacy chains to better understand consumer perceptions of differences in point-of-sale advertising for using and quitting tobacco, particularly how it is received, understood, an acted on by young adult cigarette smokers. This study will involve a field experiment in Buffalo, NY, with 186 current daily young adult (ages 18-34) smokers randomized to visit one of the three national chain pharmacies to complete a 5- minute purchase task. While completing the task, they will wear mobile eye-tracking equipment to measure attention to the PoS displays for tobacco/cessation messaging. The primary outcomes are the proportion of time spent looking at the PoS display and intention to quit. ). This study will be among the first to quantitatively asses what participants attend to when exposed to pro-tobacco and pro-cessation cues in a real world setting.





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