Understanding E-Cigarette Adoption and Marketing: A Social Media Study
Understanding E-Cigarette Adoption and Marketing: A Social Media Study
Principal Investigator: Daniel Dajun Zeng and Scott J. Leischow
Funding Mechanism: National Institutes of Health- Grant
ID Number: 1R01DA037378-01
Award Date: 6/6/2014
Institution: University of Arizona and Mayo Clinic
Although the e-cigarette research literature is growing steadily, a more detailed understanding of e-cigarettes’ health risks, their efficacy for smoking reduction and/or switching, and the marketing practices of e-cigarette vendors is required. The goal of this project is to use a social media data mining and analytics approach to gather comprehensive data related to e-cigarettes, including reasons for use, health effects, efficacy as a smoking reduction and/or switching aid, and industry marketing and promotional efforts in the U.S. Specific aims are: (1) to develop a continuously-updated dataset containing a significant portion of e-cigarette-related social media content and user social networking activities; (2) to understand the reasons for and health consequences of e-cigarette use (including efficacy as a smoking reduction and/or switching aid) as reported in social media; (3) to understand how e-cigarette vendors conduct social media-based marketing campaigns and evaluate responses in social media; and (4) to develop and evaluate a social media-based informatics platform for e-cigarette regulatory research. The results of this research project may inform tobacco-related regulatory activities related to e-cigarettes.