# PROJECT 4: CURRENT AND EMERGING TOBACCO PRODUCTS IN A RURAL CONTEXT: INFLUENCES OF PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS ON PERCEPTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND BIOLOGIC EXPOSURES

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2020 · $520,578

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Cigarette smoking among U.S. adolescents has declined, but similar declines have not occurred in youth
smokeless tobacco (ST) use. There is also a growing trend among adolescents and young adults of poly-use
of multiple tobacco products in combination. In recent decades, ST use has shifted from an older to a younger
demographic, coincident with increasing industry marketing and expanding diversity in ST product
characteristics. These new ST products include different types, brands, flavors, and varying levels of
bioavailable nicotine and cancer-causing nitrosamines. There is a need for independent data on how these
differentiating characteristics of ST and emerging tobacco products contribute to youth perceptions, initiation,
established use, poly-use, and ultimately, exposure to nicotine and carcinogens over time. This project will
address this research gap via three specific aims: (1) Identify the impact of ST and other tobacco product
characteristics, including packaging, characterizing flavors, and product design, on rural adolescents'
perceived harm, acceptability, and appeal of current and emerging smokeless, combustible, and alternative
tobacco products to; (2) Prospectively characterize tobacco use behaviors over time (e.g., initiation, cessation,
changes in intensity, product switching, and poly-use) and how family and social factors and specific product
characteristics predict transitions in behavior; and (3) Evaluate the impact of use of specific tobacco products
and product types on rural adolescents' exposure to nicotine and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, including use
of potential new products. This study will include a school-based prospective cohort of 1500 adolescents
attending rural high schools, followed for 5 survey waves over 24 months. Qualitative studies with adolescents
and their parents/guardians will be nested in the cohort to provide greater depth of understanding of how
product characteristics and socio-contextual factors influence perceptions and behavioral decisions regarding
tobacco products. Collected biomarkers will reveal how exposure to nicotine and nitrosamines varies with
differences in use patterns and difference in products. This project will improve understanding of how different
characteristics of ST and emerging tobacco products impact behavior and health effects by measuring
perceptions, behaviors, and exposure to nicotine and nitrosamines. This project will generate evidence
relevant to potential regulation of and public communication on current and emerging tobacco products and will
contribute behavioral and health outcome data for use in economic models of impact. Such evidence will
inform FDA regulation of the characteristics of ST and other tobacco products so as to reduce youth initiation
and inform FDA communication strategies for rural populations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9999022
- **Project number:** 5U54HL147127-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Benjamin W Chaffee
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $520,578
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-09-19 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9999022

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9999022, PROJECT 4: CURRENT AND EMERGING TOBACCO PRODUCTS IN A RURAL CONTEXT: INFLUENCES OF PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS ON PERCEPTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND BIOLOGIC EXPOSURES (5U54HL147127-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9999022. Licensed CC0.

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