Broadcast reach and self-reported exposure to court-ordered corrective statements on cigarette harms

•64% of U.S. smokers have been exposed to a tobacco corrective statement.•An interaction was detected between survey year and smoking status.•Broadcast reach to households (43.5%) was comparable to the survey estimate (40.6%).•Exposure frequency, which did not meet CDC Best Practices, was 0.68 exposures/month. In August 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ordered four tobacco companies to disseminate court-approved corrective statements on five topics pertaining to health hazards of cigarette smoking. Based on the 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), approximately 50% of U.S. smokers viewed at least one corrective statement via television or newspaper during the first six months of the airings/publications (November 2017–April 2018). Using televised gross rating points (GRPs) and cross-sectional data from the 2018 HINTS (n = 3484) and 2019 HINTS (n = 3331), the current study extends previous ones by estimating broadcast reach/frequency and the moderating effect of survey year on smokers’ exposure to a corrective statement. The weighted percentage of participants who viewed a corrective statement was significantly greater in the 2019 versus 2018 HINTS for smokers (64.3% vs. 50.5%, χ21df = 5.85, p = .01), but not for non-smokers (39% in 2018/2019, χ21df = 0.02; p = .88); this differential effect was evidenced by a significant interaction term (OR = 2.0(1.2, 3.2), p