Jon-Patrick Allem's research while affiliated with University of Southern California and other places
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Publications (115)
Background
Social media data have been used to describe tobacco industry marketing practices, user experiences with tobacco, and youth-oriented protobacco content.
Objective
Examine the extent to which tobacco-related social media research is cited in government policy documents.
Search Methods
Peer-reviewed tobacco-related social media studies w...
Background
Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) brands and vendors use websites to promote pro-tobacco messages that may increase susceptibility to use e-cigarettes among never users or help sustain continued e-cigarette use among current users. E-cigarette website marketing is lightly regulated, and little is known about promotional strategies used...
Background: Puff Bar has rapidly captured a large proportion of the disposable e-cigarette market. To stay abreast of the rapidly changing e-cigarette-product landscape, researchers have turned to social media platforms to monitor e-cigarette-related discussions and marketing trends. TikTok is the latest social media platform to capture the attenti...
e-Cigarette companies use cartoon images to market their products, and exposure to this marketing strategy may lead to increased risk for adolescent e-cigarette use. This study examined the effects of cartoon marketing image exposure on perceived expectations of benefits and risks of e-cigarette use, and willingness to buy e-cigarette-related produ...
Background:
E-cigarette companies use YouTube to foster brand awareness, market their products, and interact with current and future tobacco users. However, research on the official YouTube channels of e-cigarette companies is limited. This study determined the themes of, and degree of user engagement with, videos posted to the official channels o...
This Viewpoint discusses the need for health promotion programs and interventions to bolster tobacco-related digital media literacy among adolescents, young adults, parents, teachers, and public health organizations.
Background: Memes, images or videos with text overlay that embody a concept or belief about the contemporary society, are endemic to Internet culture, are popular among youth and diffuse rapidly across social media platforms. E-cigarettes and vaping have grown in popularity in the era of Internet culture however there is little research describing...
Background
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned characterizing flavors in cigarettes in 2009, this initial ban exempted menthol. After examining numerous reports on the adverse health effects of menthol cigarettes, the FDA proposed a menthol ban in April 2022. This study analyzed Twitter data to describe public reaction to th...
Background
Little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) are popular tobacco products among youth (ie, adolescents and young adults). A variety of LCC-related promotional and user-generated content is present on social media. However, research on LCC-related posts on social media has been largely focused on platforms that are primarily text- or image-based,...
BACKGROUND
Little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) are popular tobacco products among youth (adolescents and young adults). A variety of LCC-related promotional and user-generated content is present on social media. However, research on LCC-related posts on social media has been largely focused on text-based or primarily image-based platforms like Twit...
Background
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently restricted characterizing flavors in tobacco products. As a result, ice hybrid–flavored e-cigarettes, which combine a cooling flavor with fruit or other flavors (eg, banana ice), emerged on the market. Like menthol, ice-flavored e-cigarettes produce a cooling sensory experience. It is un...
BACKGROUND
After the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricted characterizing flavors in tobacco products, ‘ice’ hybrid-flavored e-cigarettes, which combine a cooling flavor with fruit or other flavors (e.g., banana ice), have recently emerged on the market. Like menthol, ‘ice’ flavors produce a cooling sensory experience. However...
Importance:
Exposure to tobacco-related content on social media may foster positive attitudes toward tobacco products and brands, and influence the likelihood of initiating or continuing use of tobacco, especially among adolescents and young adults.
Objective:
To perform the first systematic review and meta-analysis, to our knowledge, on studies...
Introduction
Research is needed to understand the frequency of e-cigarette impressions in scripted television and movies, especially in scripted content with characters and storylines that may appeal to young adults. This study aimed to determine the extent of e-cigarette-related imagery and dialogue in Netflix content popular with young adults. We...
Social media platforms offer an opportunity for targeted health communication ads to improve tobacco and cannabis prevention efforts. This study described tobacco and cannabis-related ads targeted towards adolescents and young adults on Snapchat. Data comprised of publicly available tobacco (n=70) and cannabis-related (n=64) ads from Snapchat in 20...
Introduction
Recent research has shown that e-cigarette companies use cartoon-based marketing. Recognition of this cartoon-based marketing has been associated with increased risk for e-cigarette use in young adults, however it is unclear if this generalizes to adolescents. This study examined the associations between recognition of e-liquid packagi...
Introduction
Product placement in music videos is a growing promotional strategy. This study examined the impact of e-cigarette product placement and imagery in music videos on susceptibility to use e-cigarettes among young adults.
Methods
A non-probability sample of young adults (18 to 24) in Southern California were recruited to participate in a...
BACKGROUND
The cannabis product and regulatory landscape is changing in the United States. Against the backdrop of these changes, there have been increasing reports on health-related motives for cannabis use and of adverse events from its use. The use of social media data in monitoring cannabis-related health conversations may be useful to state an...
Background:
The cannabis product and regulatory landscape is changing in the United States. Against the backdrop of these changes, there have been increasing reports on health-related motives for cannabis use and adverse events from its use. The use of social media data in monitoring cannabis-related health conversations may be useful to state- an...
This study describes key topics of discussions on Twitter at the intersection of vaping and COVID-19 and documents public reactions to announcements from authoritative health agencies. Twitter posts containing vaping and COVID-19-related terms were collected from 1 December 2019 to 3 May 2020 (n = 23,103 posts). Text classifiers and unsupervised ma...
Background:
In response to the recent government restrictions, flavored JUUL products, which are rechargeable closed-system electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), are no longer available for sale. However, disposable closed-system products such as the flavored Puff Bar e-cigarette continues to be available. If e-cigarette consumers simply switch be...
Introduction:
A holistic public health surveillance approach can help capture the public's tobacco and marijuana-related attitudes and behaviors. Using publicly available data from Twitter, this is one of the first studies to describe key topics of discussions related to each intersection (e-cigarette, combustible tobacco, and marijuana) of the Tr...
1) Background: The heated tobacco product IQOS, by Philip Morris International, is now available in over 55 countries, including the United States. Social media sites such as Twitter are often used to promote or discuss tobacco products, though prior research has not examined how IQOS is presented on Twitter. (2) Methods: This study collected and c...
Background
The prevalence of electronic-cigarette (e-cigarette) product placement in music videos is on the rise and currently unregulated. This promotional activity is concerning given the popularity of music videos among young adults.
Aims
We examined associations between self-reported levels of exposure to music videos with any e-cigarette prod...
Background:
The prevalence of cannabis use has increased among U.S. pregnant women. Given this increase, and rapidly changing cannabis policies, it may be important to harness digital data sources to help capture trends and perceptions of cannabis use during pregnancy and postpartum. The objective of this study was to examine cannabis and pregnanc...
Background
Starting in 2019 policies restricting the availability of flavored e-cigarette products were proposed or implemented in the U.S. to curb vaping by youth. People took to Twitter to voice their opposition, referencing the phrase “Flavors Save Lives”. This study documented the emerging themes pertaining to “Flavors Saves Lives” over a 12-mo...
Introduction
Given the increasing use of e-cigarettes among young adults, it is crucial to identify possible sources of e-cigarette marketing exposure in media popular among young adults. However few studies document e-cigarette product placement (e.g., visible logo, branded merchandise or gear such as a branded hat or shirt) in music videos. The o...
BACKGROUND
In response to the recent government restrictions, flavored JUUL products, which are rechargeable closed-system electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), are no longer available for sale. However, disposable closed-system products such as the flavored Puff Bar e-cigarette continues to be available. If e-cigarette consumers simply switch betw...
BACKGROUND
Cultural trends in the United States, the nicotine consumer marketplace, and tobacco policies are changing.
OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to identify and describe nicotine-related topics of conversation authored by the public and social bots on Twitter, including any misinformation or misconceptions that health education campaign...
Background
Cultural trends in the United States, the nicotine consumer marketplace, and tobacco policies are changing.
Objective
The goal of this study was to identify and describe nicotine-related topics of conversation authored by the public and social bots on Twitter, including any misinformation or misconceptions that health education campaign...
Background
Instagram, one of the most popular social media platforms among youth, offers a unique opportunity to examine blunts—partially or fully hollowed-out large cigars, little cigars, and cigarillos that are filled with marijuana. Cigarillo brands like Backwoods (Imperial Tobacco Group Brands LLC) have product features that facilitate blunt ma...
BACKGROUND
Instagram, one of the most popular social media platforms among youth, offers a unique opportunity to examine blunts—partially or fully hollowed out large cigars, little cigars, and cigarillos that are filled with marijuana. Cigarillo brands like Backwoods (Imperial Tobacco Group Brands LLC) have product features that facilitate blunt-ma...
The use of e-cigarettes is a growing public health concern. In 2019, 27.5% of US high school students reported current e-cigarette use.¹ Marketing practices by e-cigarette companies may specifically appeal to adolescents² and contribute to tobacco use–associated behaviors. Studies have indicated that cartoons are an effective strategy in increasing...
We sought to assess the proportion of Backwoods (Imperial Tobacco Group Brands LLC) cigar-related posts to Instagram that may contain misleading claims, nature-evoking imagery, and appealing flavors. Inclusion criteria for this study included an Instagram post with the hashtag “#backwoods” from 30 August to 12 September 2018. Rules were established...
In a recent issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Seitz et al. reported findings from their study that assessed the prevalence and types of cartoon on e-juice labels.¹ Data were collected from eliquid.com and coded to determine the presence and types (comically exaggerated people, comically exaggerated animals, comically exaggerated creatures, anth...
Introduction
JUUL, a small pod-based vaping device that aerosolizes nicotine salts, is popular among adolescents and young adults. Because of JUUL’s high nicotine content, JUUL users can become nicotine dependent very quickly and have difficulty quitting. Nicotine-dependent JUUL users might turn to Twitter to seek advice, share their cessation stru...
Background
Electric scooters (e-scooters) have become a popular mode of transportation in both the United States and Europe. In the wake of this popularity, e-scooters have changed the commuting experience in many metropolitan areas. Although e-scooters offer an efficient and economical way to travel short distances in traffic-congested areas, rece...
Background:
Prior research has not examined whether tobacco brand websites vary content based on audience demographics. This study explored whether marketing content on tobacco brand websites varied by user ethnicity, gender or age group.
Methods:
Participants (n = 32) were adult smokers, representing equal numbers of eight demographic groups: u...
Objectives. To use publicly accessible data from people who post to Twitter to rapidly capture and describe the public’s recent experiences with cannabis.
Methods. We obtained Twitter posts containing cannabis-related terms from May 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018. We used methods to distinguish between posts from social bots and nonbots. We used tex...
Exposure to e-cigarette (e-cig) marketing through traditional and online media can increase the risk of e-cig use among adolescents. Though popular e-cig brand JUUL has scaled back its social media promotions, outside vendors and individual users create posts about JUUL unregulated. Instagram’s image-focus offers an opportunity to document promotio...
Introduction
E-cigarette devices and their component parts are continuously
evolving. Little is known about the product design features that may increase
the appeal of e-cigarette use, ultimately affecting continuation of use. Product
reviews have been described as useful in helping to forecast the popularity of
products, and online reviews have be...
Background: Emerging evidence suggests that exposure to secondhand and thirdhand aerosol from electronic cigarettes may have serious health risks including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Social media data can help identify common locations referenced in vaping-related discussions and offer clues about where individuals vape. These insight...
Background:
Manufacturers of e-cigarette-related products are using cartoons as a marketing strategy, despite restrictions on cartoon marketing for combustible cigarettes. Here, we examined associations between exposure to e-liquid packaging with cartoons (operationally defined as recognition of actual marketing images) and e-cigarette use, suscep...
Background:
Little cigars are growing in popularity in the United States, and Swisher is the market leader. The contexts and experiences associated with the use of Swisher-related products is understudied, but such information is available via publicly available posts on Twitter.
Objective:
This study aimed to analyze Twitter posts to characteri...
Introduction:
E-liquid is the solution aerosolized by e-cigarette devices to produce vapor. Continuously evolving e-liquids, and corresponding devices, can affect user experiences associated with these products. Twitter conversations about e-liquids can capture salient behavioral, social, and communicative cues associated with e-liquids. We analyz...
Background
This study analysed posts to Instagram related to KandyPens, an open-system pod mod e-cigarette company, marketing its products as aromatherapy devices. The objective was to determine themes, corresponding user profiles and references to types of e-liquid solutions used with KandyPens.
Methods
Data consisted of publicly available posts...
Background:
Hookah (or tobacco waterpipe) use has recently become prevalent in the United States. The contexts and experiences associated with hookah use are unclear, yet such information is abundant via publicly available hookah users' social media postings.
Objective:
In this study, we utilized Twitter data to characterize Twitter users' recen...
BACKGROUND
Tobacco-related content on social media is generated and propagated by online opinion leaders, who disseminate messages to their followers. Opinion leaders can exert powerful influences on their followers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, yet little is known about the demographic characteristics and tobacco use behavior of online tob...
Background:
Tobacco-related content on social media is generated and propagated by opinion leaders on the Web who disseminate messages to others in their network, including followers, who then continue to spread the information. Opinion leaders can exert powerful influences on their followers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; yet, little is kn...
News media monitoring is an important scientific tool. By treating news reporters as data collectors and their reports as qualitative accounts of a fast changing public health landscape, researchers can glean many valuable insights. Yet, there have been surprisingly few innovations in public health media monitoring, with nearly all studies relying...
Electric scooter (e-scooter) companies are growing in popularity across the United States looking to take advantage of the rideshare economy by providing an independent alternative to cars and bicycles. While e-scooter transportation could reduce emissions, and automobile congestion in local areas, powered two-wheeler drivers are extremely vulnerab...
The development of public health education campaigns about tobacco products requires an understanding of specific audience segments including their views, intentions, use of media, perceived barriers, and benefits of change. For example, identifying and targeting individuals who express ambivalence about e-cigarette use on Twitter may be helpful in...
Purpose:
The increasing popularity of the JUUL electronic nicotine delivery system among youth poses several potential public health concerns. Social media can be used to better understand the spread of information related to JUUL. This study examined whether adolescents (age < 18) are following JUUL's official Twitter account and subsequently sha...
Background
Twitter offers a platform for rapid diffusion of information and its users' attitudes and behaviors. Insights about information propagation via retweets (the message forwarding function) offer observable explanations of ways in which modern human interactions get organized in the form of online networks, and contextualized in the form of...
Survey questions related to the measures.
(DOCX)
Background:
Instagram, with millions of posts per day, can be used to inform public health surveillance targets and policies. However, current research relying on image-based data often relies on hand coding of images, which is time-consuming and costly, ultimately limiting the scope of the study. Current best practices in automated image classifi...
Introduction
The tobacco industry’s use of cartoons to market products has been shown to be effective at increasing awareness and appeal of combustible cigarettes among youth. While the Master Settlement Agreement placed restrictions on the use of cartoons for major cigarette and smokeless (chew) tobacco brands in the USA, no such restrictions exis...
BACKGROUND
Hookah (or tobacco waterpipe) use has recently become prevalent in the United States. The contexts and experiences associated with hookah use are unclear, yet such information is abundant via publicly available hookah users’ social media postings.
OBJECTIVE
In this study, we utilized Twitter data to characterize Twitter users’ recent ex...
Background:
As vaping rapidly becomes more prevalent, social media data can be harnessed to capture individuals' discussions of e-cigarette products quickly. The JUUL vaporizer is the latest advancement in e-cigarette technology, which delivers nicotine to the user from a device that is the size and shape of a thumb drive. Despite JUUL's growing p...
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States hundreds of thousands initiate smoking each year, and millions live with smoking-related dis- eases. Many tobacco users discuss their habits and preferences on social media. This work conceptualizes a framework for targeted health interventions to inform tobacco users...
BACKGROUND
Instagram, with millions of posts per day, can be used to inform public health surveillance targets and policies. However, current research relying on image-based data often relies on hand coding of images, which is time-consuming and costly, ultimately limiting the scope of the study. Current best practices in automated image classifica...
Background:
As e-cigarette use rapidly increases in popularity, data from online social systems (Twitter, Instagram, Google Web Search) can be used to capture and describe the social and environmental context in which individuals use, perceive, and are marketed this tobacco product. Social media data may serve as a massive focus group where people...
Background:
The increasing popularity of hookah (or waterpipe) use in the United States and elsewhere has consequences for public health because it has similar health risks to that of combustible cigarettes. While hookah use rapidly increases in popularity, social media data (Twitter, Instagram) can be used to capture and describe the social and e...
Introduction:
Limited information exists about strategies and methods used on brand marketing websites to transmit pro-tobacco messages to tobacco users and potential users. This study compared age verification methods, themes, interactive activities and links to social media across tobacco brand websites.
Methods:
This study examined 12 tobacco...
This study assessed the association between ethnicity, religious service attendance (RSA), and acculturation with posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a diverse sample of 235 childhood cancer survivors (CCS). PTG scores were estimated for each ethnicity, and by level of RSA and acculturation. There was a significant curvilinear relationship (inverted U) b...
The Netflix series 13 Reasons Why explores the suicide of a fictional teen, and the finale graphically shows the suicide over a 3-minute scene.
Background
Little cigar and cigarillo use is becoming more prevalent in the United States and elsewhere, with implications for public health. As little cigar and cigarillo use grows in popularity, big social media data (eg, Instagram, Google Web Search, Twitter) can be used to capture and document the context in which individuals use, and are marke...
Introduction:
Hispanic emerging adults are a priority population for substance use prevention, yet few studies have examined whether traditional Hispanic cultural values serve as risk or protective factors for substance use among emerging adults. This study examined the relationship between familism, respeto, fatalism, and substance use among Hisp...
One in eight of the 1.2 million Americans living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are unaware of their positive status, and untested individuals are responsible for most new infections. As a result, testing is the most cost-effective HIV prevention strategy and must be accelerated when opportunities are presented. Web searches for HIV spiked...
Introduction:
The popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has spurred the growth of vape shops, but little is known about the retailers who may play an important role in the introduction and dissemination of vape products. In this paper we examine how retailers profile their customers and their perceptions of vaping, and the services th...
The reasons for using electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are poorly understood and are primarily documented by expensive cross-sectional surveys that use preconceived close-ended response options rather than allowing respondents to use their own words. We passively identify the reasons for using ENDS longitudinally from a content analysis...
Introduction:
Waterpipe (hookah) use is becoming more prevalent in the United States and abroad with potential implications for public health. As waterpipe use rapidly grows in popularity, novel data streams are needed that can help capture and document the social and environmental context in which individuals use, and are marketed, this emerging...
Recently, we witnessed a new marketing strategy in which vape shops and online e-cigarette retailers have harnessed the popularity of the interactive smartphone game Pokemon Go to promote vaping products. This approach combines the strengths of recent and traditional strategies thought to be effective in promoting tobacco use to adolescents and you...
Background
The rising popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has been accompanied by the proliferation of vape shops in the United States. Vape shops are devoted to the sale of e-cigarettes and e-juices. This study aimed to describe the age, gender, and ethnicity of customers who frequent these shops, determine whether conversations tra...
Introduction:
This study documented images posted on Instagram of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarette) and vaping (activity associated with e-cigarette use). Although e-cigarettes have been studied on Twitter, few studies have focused on Instagram, despite having 500 million users. Instagram's emphasis on images warranted investigation of e-cigaret...
Corresponding Author: John W. Ayers, PhD, MA, Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, 2967 Four Corners St, Chula Vista, CA 91914 (ayers.john.w@gmail.com).
Published Online: September 16, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.6274
Author Contributions: Dr Ayers had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibili...
In a recent issue of JMIR, Kim and colleagues described a framework for data collection, quality assessment, and reporting standards for social media data used in health research [1]. The authors’ framework was based on two principles: retrieval precision or “how much of retrieved data is relevant” and retrieval recall or “how much of the relevant...
