POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addictions
This article is part of the Research TopicVaping Among Young People: Health Impacts, Trends, and Policy Implications for E-Cigarettes and THC UseView all 6 articles
The Effectiveness of Anti-Vaping Health Communication Campaigns Among High School and College Students in the U.S
Provisionally accepted
- not affiliated with any organization or university, self-employed, Marlboro, United States
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Abstract Introduction: This policy review looks at the exact message themes used in anti-vaping health communication campaigns, PSAs, and warning labels to determine how they can be improved to decrease vaping initiation and encourage cessation among adolescents and young adults. Literature Review: Two meta-analyses, one on anti-vaping campaigns and another on vaping advertisements are reviewed in addition to one retrospective on tobacco warning labels. Overall, messages that reveal specific health harms and increase perceived risk are most likely to decrease vaping tendency. Methods: A total of 16 studies are analyzed assessing the viewpoints of 21,427 people regarding how they feel about terminology used in several types of anti-vaping messages. Actionable Recommendations: Multiple recommendations are made regarding how to improve the efficacy of current anti-vaping campaigns. Among several other factors, messages that denote the health consequences of vaping and chemicals contained in vapor products are the most effective. Meanwhile, messages that warn that nicotine is addictive are deemed the least effective. Discussion: Implications of these findings for policymakers include the need for a new FDA warning label that includes specific health implications of vape and nicotine use; Structural changes to restrict youth and young adult access to vape products; as well as guidance regarding how to use social media to disseminate information on the dangers of vaping.
Keywords: anti-vaping, Prevention campaigns, Health Communication, PSAS, warning labels, message themes, adolescents, young adults
Received: 30 Jul 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Skran. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sarah R Skran
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