UCSF

Purpose

To compare the relationship between anti-tobacco industry attitudes and intention and attempts to quit smoking across 6 young adult peer crowds.

Design

A cross-sectional bar survey in 2015.

Setting

Seven US cities (Albuquerque, Los Angeles, Nashville, Oklahoma City, San Diego, San Francisco, and Tucson).

Participants

Two thousand eight hundred seventeen young adult bar patrons who were currently smoking.

Measures

Intention to quit in the next 6 months and having made a quit attempt in the last 12 months were binary outcomes. Anti-industry attitudes were measured by 3 items indicating support for action against the tobacco industry. Peer crowd affiliation was measured using the I-Base Survey.

Analysis

Adjusted multivariable logistic regression models examined the association between anti-industry attitudes and the outcomes for the total sample and for each peer crowd.

Results

Overall, anti-industry attitudes were positively associated with both intention to quit (odds ratio [OR] = 1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.24-1.52) and attempt to quit (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.03-1.27). Intriguingly, the relationship between anti-industry attitudes and intention to quit differed by peer crowd affiliation, with significant associations for Homebody, Partier, Hipster, and Hip Hop, but not for Young Professional and Country.

Conclusions

Developing health communication messages that resonate with unique peer crowd values can enhance the relevance of public health campaigns. Tobacco control practitioners should tailor anti-industry messages to promote intention to quit smoking among the highest risk young adults.