Health Communications for Adults Smoking Nondaily

The goal of this study is to develop smoking health risk messaging targeted to adults who smoke some days, but not smoke every day (nondaily). The main purpose is to learn what type of smoking health risk messages will be most likely to encourage adults nondaily to quit completely. Aim 1will iteratively obtain qualitative feedback from adults smoking nondaily on initial message designs, resulting in 12 final messages. Aim 2 will test message properties using a 2 (health vs. social messages) x 2 (positive vs. negative messages) between subjects design to ascertain which messages promote proximal outcomes associated with quitting cigarettes (e.g., new knowledge, risk perceptions, motivation and intentions to quit).

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Smoking Cessation
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Targeted Smoking Messages

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 320
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Kentucky
    • Lexington, Kentucky, United States, 40506
      • University of Kentucky

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• individuals that report smoking at least one combustible cigarette per day on 4-28 days in the past 30 days
• able to read/write in English
• able to give informed consent
• no history of daily smoking

Exclusion Criteria:

• enrolled in smoking cessation treatment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Positive Health Messaging (PH)	Behavioral: Targeted Smoking Messages; Participants will view 3 messages within the assigned condition (PH, PS, NH, NS) in a random order. Each message will be displayed for a minimum of 30 seconds.
Active Comparator: Negative Health Messaging (NH)	Behavioral: Targeted Smoking Messages; Participants will view 3 messages within the assigned condition (PH, PS, NH, NS) in a random order. Each message will be displayed for a minimum of 30 seconds.
Experimental: Positive Social Messaging (PS)	Behavioral: Targeted Smoking Messages; Participants will view 3 messages within the assigned condition (PH, PS, NH, NS) in a random order. Each message will be displayed for a minimum of 30 seconds.
Experimental: Negative Social Messaging (NS)	Behavioral: Targeted Smoking Messages; Participants will view 3 messages within the assigned condition (PH, PS, NH, NS) in a random order. Each message will be displayed for a minimum of 30 seconds.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Knowledge	Knowledge will be assessed with items based on the ITC-4 (International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey) that map onto information presented in the messages (e.g., "Does smoking cause…" heart disease, lung cancer in others; Yes, No, I don't know)	Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 1 hour)
Change in Worry	Worry will be assessed with 4 items, "How [worried, anxious, fearful, concerned] are you about the effects of smoking?" (1=Not at all, 7=Extremely).	Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 1 hour)
Change in Risk perception	Risk perceptions will be assessed with 3 items, "If you [don't/do] quit smoking for good, what are your chances of ever developing a smoking-related health problem?" and "How susceptible do you feel you are to developing a smoking-related health problem?" (1=Lowest susceptibility, 7=Highest susceptibility). These will be averaged to form a measure of personal absolute risk	Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 1 hour)
Change in the Contemplation Ladder	Motivation to quit will be measured with the Contemplation Ladder, rating the position on an 11-rung ladder (0-10) corresponding to stages from "no thought of quitting" (0) to "taking action" (10)	Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 1 hour)
Change in the Motivation to Stop Scale	Motivation to quit will be measured with the Motivation to Stop Scale, Level of motivation to stop smoking is measured with seven response categories ranging from 1 (lowest) to level 7 (highest level of motivation to stop smoking)	Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 1 hour)
Change in intention to quit	Intention to quit will be measured with the question "What best describes your intent to stop smoking completely, not even a puff?" (1=Never expect to quit, 4=Will quit in the next 30 days)	Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 1 hour)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Bethany Shorey Fennell, PhD
• Collaborators: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Bethany Shorey Fennell, PhD, University of Kentucky

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 17, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 18, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 18, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): December 22, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 28, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 27, 2026
• Last Verified: April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Health Behavior; Smoking Cessation
• Other Study ID Numbers: 94633; R03CA286623 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No