Online Tobacco Marketing Among US Adolescent Sexual, Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Minorities

Overview

Journal Addict Behav

Specialties Psychiatry
Social Sciences

Date 2019 Apr 8

PMID 30954888

Citations 27

Authors

Samir Soneji

Kristin E Knutzen

Andy S L Tan

Meghan Bridgid Moran

JaeWon Yang

James Sargent

Kelvin Choi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Introduction: The tobacco industry has previously targeted sexual/gender and racial/ethnic minorities with focused campaigns in traditional, offline marketing. We assess whether these populations report more engagement with online tobacco marketing compared with heterosexual and non-Hispanic white youth.

Methods: Data were from 8015 adolescents sampled between 2014 and 2015 in the nationally-representative Population Assessment for Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. Engagement with online tobacco marketing within the past year was assessed through eight forms of engagement. A weighted logistic regression model was fit with engagement as outcome and socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics, internet-related and substance use behavior, tobacco-related risk factors, tobacco use status, and prior engagement with online tobacco marketing as covariates.

Results: Accounting for other covariates including tobacco use status and prior engagement with online tobacco marketing, the odds of past-year engagement were higher for sexual minority males (aOR = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.05-2.35) compared to straight males and higher for sexual minority females (aOR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.13-1.87) compared to straight females. The odds of past-year engagement were also higher for Hispanics (aOR = 1.31; 95% CI: 1.11-1.56) and non-Hispanic Blacks (aOR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.14-1.77) compared to non-Hispanic Whites.

Conclusions: Sexual/gender and and racial/ethnic minority youth reported higher engagement with online tobacco marketing than their heterosexual and non-Hispanic white peers, respectively.

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