Consuming alcohol is a dose-dependent and modifiable risk factor for breast cancer. Although alcohol consumption contributes to an estimated 16% of breast cancer cases, awareness of the link between alcohol and breast cancer risk remains low. Systematically developed and tested health warnings can support population-based approaches and intervention strategies to decrease alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk. For instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can mandate specific warnings through statements (e.g., "WARNING: This product contains nicotine…") and color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of products that can harm public health, such as tobacco and alcohol. However, health warning statements and graphics should be assessed among intended audiences before implementation. Research has outlined principles for effective health warning statements. This project will test different health warning statements about the health effects of alcohol.
Health warning statements should be assessed for effectiveness among target audiences before implementation as interventions. Research has outlined principles for effective health warning statements. Specifically, health warning statements are effective when they impact mediators of health behavior (e.g., message perceptions, emotional/affective reactions, and resistance to messages) as well as actual behavior. Guided by these assumptions, we will conduct an online randomized clinical trial (RCT) (N=2,000) with US female participants (ages 18 to 65 years) who report consuming alcohol in the past 30 days (i.e., people who currently drink) and young adult female non-drinkers (ages 18-29) to assess how both samples rate different alcohol health warning statements presented in different formats.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
2,000
The experiment will use a 2 (health warning statement: single-theme statement vs. composite paragraph) x 2 (pictogram: present vs. absent) x 2 (format: alcohol container vs. alcohol advertisement) between- and within-subjects design. The between-subject groups are 2 (health warning statement: single-theme vs. composite message) x 2 (pictogram: present vs. absent), and the within-subjects factor is the format of warning presentation (2 alcohol containers vs. 2 alcohol advertisements).
The experiment will use a 2 (health warning statement: single-theme statement vs. composite paragraph) x 2 (pictogram: present vs. absent) x 2 (format: alcohol container vs. alcohol advertisement) between- and within-subjects design. The between-subject groups are 2 (health warning statement: single-theme vs. composite message) x 2 (pictogram: present vs. absent), and the within-subjects factor is the format of warning presentation (2 alcohol containers vs. 2 alcohol advertisements).
University of Oklahoma Health Campus, Health Promotion Research Center
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
RECRUITINGRisk perceptions of alcohol harms (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) for perceptions of severity and likelihood of negative health effects occurring as a result of alcohol consumption.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Perceived efficacy to prevent alcohol harms (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) for perceptions of response and self-efficacy to protect against the negative health effects occurring as a result of alcohol consumption.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Attitudes about alcohol consumption (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 7) for attitudes about alcohol consumption.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Intentions to quit or reduce drinking alcohol (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) for intentions to quit or reduce alcohol consumption in the next 6 months.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Intentions to seek information about alcohol health effects and cancer screenings (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) for intentions to seek information about the health effects of alcohol, including cancer screenings.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Attention to warning statements (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) of attention to experimental images.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Perceived message effectiveness (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) of perceived message effectiveness of health warnings in experimental images.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Reactance (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) of opposition to the health warning information in experimental images.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Emotional responses (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) for strength of positive to negative feeling/emotions about the experimental images.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Alcohol product appeal (questionnaire self-report)
Continuous self-report measure (1 to 9) for appeal of products in experimental images.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
Unaided recall (i.e., correctly recalling health effects described in warnings)
Open-ended qualitative recall. Participants are prompted to describe the health risks of alcohol use mentioned in the experimental images.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
"Masked" recall (i.e., viewing health warning stimuli with messages blurred to prompt recall of specific messages)
Participants view the 1st image they were exposed to in the experiment with the health warning blurred and are prompted to write down everything they can recall about it.
Time frame: Assessed immediately after stimulus exposure.
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