Table 1.

Operational Definitions and Examples of HBM and PME Constructs

Constructs	Operational Definitions	Examples
HBM Constructs
Perceived heath threat	Participants mentioned the health risk and harm of e-cigarette use and/or that e-cigarettes are as harmful as or more harmful than combusted cigarettes.	“Using e cigars can cause cancer and will be hospitalized or leads to death.” “No difference between e-cig and cig. Just as harmful for your body.”
Perceived benefits of not vaping	Participants mentioned the benefits of quitting vaping and/or not initiating vaping, such as financial, physical and mental benefits.	“E-cigarettes are expensive. I could save a lot of money by staying away from them.” “I have more energy almost immediately after I stop vaping.”
Perceived barriers to not vaping	Participants mentioned obstacles to quit vaping and/or appealing factors that encourage e-cigarette initiation.	“E-cig is addictive. I feel like I will never leave to quitting.” “Some people started vaping because of the many flavors, but then got hooked.”
Self-efficacy of not vaping	Participants mentioned their confidence in their abilities to quit vaping or not initiate vaping.	“I tried but it’s so difficult to quit. I don’t think I can ever stop vaping.” “Will people be able to give up a nasty habit? Absolutely no!”
Cues to action	Participants mentioned internal (e.g., personal physical and mental symptoms) or external (e.g., illness of close others, news reports, etc.) cues that remind them to quit vaping or not to initiate vaping.	“My chest pain made me think to quit vaping.” “Knowing that the company and government are trying to reduce the population of people by getting them addicted to e-cigarettes, vapers should really quit.”
PME Constructs
Positive message perceptions	Participants positively evaluated the message attributes and features, such as creditability, understandability, and other aspects of message design.	“The message is stated to be from Public Health. The message is accurate and believable.” “I liked the design look of the ad.”
Negative message perceptions	Participants negatively evaluated the message attributes and features.	“Nonsense! I never heard this claim before. I don’t believe it.” “The image is pretty plain and irrelevant to the message.”
Positive effect perceptions	Participants mentioned that the messages had positive influences on people’s perceptions and behaviors, such as increasing their negative attitudes towards vaping and motivating them to quit vaping.	“This picture made me feel like tobacco companies don’t care about my health as a person, which is true.” “Looking at the ad made me not want to use e-cigs.”
Negative effect perceptions	Participants mentioned that the messages were not effective in changing people’s attitudes or behaviors in the desired direction.	“I don’t think this ad will make me give up e cigarettes.” “This is just another propaganda. The ad will not make people quit vaping.”

Note. HBM = Health Belief Model. PME = Perceived Message Effectiveness.