Cigarette Filter Study

Risk beliefs

Risk beliefs will be captured via 8 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = "definitely untrue", 5 = "definitely true") that evaluate participants' preferred brand and the cigarettes they smoke on the following beliefs: a) "lower in nicotine", b) "lower in tar", c) "less addictive", d) "less likely to cause cancer", e) "has fewer chemicals", f) "is healthier", g) "makes smoking safer", h) "helps people quit smoking." Individual items will be scores as correct or incorrect, and incorrect responses will be summed to created an overall false beliefs score (0-8 range, with higher scores indicating greater false beliefs about reduced risk.

Perceived health risks

Participants will indicate on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = "very low risk", 7 = "very high risk") their risk of developing smoking-related health conditions (i.e., lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema, respiratory infections, and other cancers) from regular use of the cigarette they are smoking. Higher mean scores indicate greater perceived risk (range 1-7).

Subjective ratings

Participants will rate cigarettes smoked during in-person visits using 14 individual items assessing various cigarette characteristics (e.g., strength, taste, satisfaction, harshness) used by the tobacco industry and our laboratory. Items are rated on a 100 mm visual analog scale with item-specific anchors (e.g., strength: 0 = "very weak," 100 = "very strong"); lower scores indicate less favorable ratings. We will examine mean composite scales generated from these items to assess domains of product harshness, smoking satisfaction, positive sensory experience, and cleanliness.

Daily cigarette consumption

Daily cigarette consumption will be assessed by participant self-report and verified through collection of used filters for all cigarettes smoked during the 5-week study. The mean will be computed for daily cigarette consumption during the week preceding final study session (i.e., mean of cigarettes smoked per day between Sessions 5 and 6, or Days 28-35).

End of study interview

We will conduct in-depth interviews with participants to qualitatively assess their reactions to the cigarettes they used during the experimental period to provide important contextual information to interpret the behavioral and survey outcome results. An interviewer will be trained with and will use an interview guide that includes open-ended questions pertaining to subjective ratings, appeal, and harm perceptions of the different types of cigarettes used in the study, with probes to inquire about associations of specific features (i.e., the charcoal filter) with reduced harm. We will also ask participants about the role of charcoal in other non-tobacco products.

Craving

Craving will be assessed using at session onset using the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges with a "right now" frame of reference to determine a summary score from a 32-item Likert-format self-report instrument; mean scores range from 1-7 with greater scores indicating greater craving.

Withdrawal

The 21-item Withdrawal Symptom Checklist (WSC) using a "right now" frame of reference, will ask participants to rate the intensity of their symptoms (e.g., cravings, irritability, difficulty concentrating) on a 4-point scale (0 = not present, 3 = severe) at session onset.

Attitudes

Attitudes toward study-supplied cigarettes will be assessed by the mean of an eight-item, seven-point semantic differential scale (Strasser, Cappella, et al., 2009; Yzer et al., 2003) that asks, "Which of the words below would best describe your continued use of this product?" Items were a) bad/good, b) unenjoyable/enjoyable, c) unpleasant/pleasant, d) foolish/wise, e) difficult/easy, f) more/less harmful, g) not under/under my control, and h) less/more healthy. Higher scores indicate more favorable attitudes.