Designing More Effective Cigar Warnings: An Experiment Among Adult Cigar Smokers

Abstract Introduction Little systematic evidence exists about the effectiveness of cigar warnings. This study examined the perceived message effectiveness (PME) of warning statements about different health consequences caused by cigars. PME is a validated self-report scale of how effectively a health message discourages smoking. Aims and Methods We conducted an online study from April to May 2020 with adults in the United States who used cigars in the past 30 days (n = 777). Participants were randomly assigned to view and rate PME (three items, range 1–5) for seven out of 37 text warning statements about different health consequences from cigar use. Linear mixed effects models evaluated the most effective warning characteristics (eg, type of health consequence), controlling for repeated measures and participant demographics. Results Analyses showed that health consequences about the cardiovascular system (B = 0.38), mouth (B = 0.40), other digestive (B = 0.45), respiratory system (B = 0.36), and early death (B = 0.36) were associated with higher PME scores than reproductive health consequences (all p values