Table 2.
Individual item perception ratings for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco
| Cigarettes | Smokeless Tobacco | differencec | cigarettes higherd (%) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||
| Mean (SD) | rhoa | alphab | Mean (SD) | rhoa | alphab | |||
| Oral and rule-breaking risks | 0.88 | 0.88 | ||||||
| Upset family | 83.3 (29) | 0.65 | 0.87 | 78.3 (29) | 0.64 | 0.87 | 5.0 | 45.7 |
| Mouth cancer | 63.9 (31) | 0.70 | 0.87 | 74.2 (27) | 0.77 | 0.85 | −10.4 | 28.4 |
| Bad breath | 77.0 (29) | 0.58 | 0.88 | 71.3 (30) | 0.72 | 0.86 | 5.7 | 51.2 |
| Brown teeth | 68.4 (30) | 0.71 | 0.86 | 72.3 (29) | 0.75 | 0.85 | −3.9 | 38.7 |
| Mouth sores | 58.6 (30) | 0.67 | 0.87 | 68.6 (30) | 0.72 | 0.86 | −10.0 | 29.8 |
| Get in trouble | 71.6 (33) | 0.72 | 0.86 | 68.0 (33) | 0.55 | 0.88 | 3.7 | 44.7 |
| Become addicted | 66.8 (34) | 0.70 | 0.86 | 66.7 (30) | 0.57 | 0.88 | 0.0 | 47.6 |
| Systemic health risks | 0.86 | 0.91 | ||||||
| Worse at athletics | 72.4 (32) | 0.58 | 0.85 | 55.4 (36) | 0.64 | 0.90 | 17.0 | 62.0 |
| Bad cough | 71.2 (29) | 0.74 | 0.83 | 46.4 (34) | 0.80 | 0.88 | 24.6 | 71.5 |
| Upset friends | 60.2 (34) | 0.68 | 0.84 | 49.3 (34) | 0.60 | 0.90 | 11.0 | 57.8 |
| Trouble catching breath | 70.8 (28) | 0.72 | 0.83 | 46.8 (33) | 0.80 | 0.88 | 24.1 | 72.0 |
| Lung cancer | 70.5 (30) | 0.51 | 0.85 | 46.7 (34) | 0.74 | 0.89 | 23.9 | 69.6 |
| Start smoking/using dipe | 57.9 (33) | 0.43 | 0.83 | 44.8 (35) | 0.64 | 0.90 | 13.1 | 55.3 |
| Heart attack | 56.5 (31) | 0.67 | 0.84 | 47.4 (31) | 0.74 | 0.89 | 9.1 | 54.4 |
| Harm someone nearby | 56.4 (35) | 0.57 | 0.85 | 35.4 (33) | 0.65 | 0.90 | 21.1 | 62.9 |
| Benefits | 0.68 | 0.77 | ||||||
| Feel relaxed | 44.3 (32) | 0.44 | 0.64 | 47.2 (32) | 0.50 | 0.74 | −2.7 | 43.1 |
| Fit in more | 24.8 (27) | 0.53 | 0.59 | 32.4 (29) | 0.59 | 0.71 | −7.7 | 32.3 |
| Look cool | 21.6 (28) | 0.39 | 0.65 | 32.6 (30) | 0.61 | 0.70 | −10.9 | 24.8 |
| Feel more alert | 25.0 (26) | 0.52 | 0.59 | 30.9 (27) | 0.50 | 0.74 | −5.8 | 33.0 |
| Better at athletics | 16.1 (27) | 0.32 | 0.68 | 23.2 (27) | 0.50 | 0.74 | −7.1 | 22.1 |
a
Item correlation with remaining items in the composite score
b
Chronbach’s alpha for composite score (title rows) or Chronbach’s alpha recalculated with each individual item removed
c
Mean differences in rating between cigarettes and smokeless tobacco (all differences p < 0.05 except “become addicted” by Wilcoxon signed-rank test)
d
Percent of participants with higher rating for cigarettes than for ST
e
Worded as start smoking cigarettes in smokeless survey questions and as start using dip/chew on cigarette questions
Abbreviation: SD = standard deviation; N = 563 to 567 (depending on missing values per item)