{"doi":"10.1093/ntr/ntaa272","title":"Characterization of Electronic Cigarette Warning Statements Portrayed in YouTube Videos","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: In 2018, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required that electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) manufacturers, packagers, importers, distributors, and retailers display an addictive or alternate warning statement on e-cigarette visual advertisements. Few studies have investigated the FDA-mandated and other warnings on social media. This study examined the prevalence and content of warning statements in e-cigarette-related YouTube videos. METHODS: In 2019, The Virginia Commonwealth University Center for the Study of Tobacco Products conducted bi-monthly (February-June) YouTube searches by relevance and view count to identify e-cigarette-related videos. Overall, 178 videos met the inclusion criteria. Staff coded each video for the presence of a visual/verbal warning statement, warning statement type (eg, FDA-mandated, addiction/tobacco, safety/toxic exposure, health effects), sponsorship, and tobacco product characteristics. A data extraction tool collected the video URL, title, upload date, and number of views, likes/dislikes, and comments. RESULTS: Only 5.1% of videos contained FDA-mandated and 21.9% contained non-mandated warnings. All videos with FDA-mandated and 46.2% of non-mandated warnings were represented visually. Only 13.1% of industry-sponsored videos uploaded after the mandate effective date had an FDA-mandated warning statement and videos with FDA-mandated and non-mandated (v. no) warnings had significantly fewer views, likes, dislikes, and comments. Among all non-mandated warnings, 31.3% featured an addiction/tobacco, 18.8% a safety/toxic exposure, and 37.5% a health effects warning. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of FDA-mandated warning statements in e-cigarette related YouTube videos was low. FDA enforcement of the warning statement mandate on YouTube could increase the public's understanding of the addictive nature of nicotine in e-cigarettes. IMPLICATIONS: The FDA has the authority to regulate the advertisement and promotion of e-cigarettes on the Internet. These data can inform future FDA requirements related to the language content and visual representation of addiction/tobacco, safety/exposure, and health effects warning statements that appear in YouTube videos and other visual social media popular among young people. Such data would help consumers make informed decisions about purchasing e-cigarette products, using e-cigarettes, and avoiding unintentional harm related to e-cigarettes. In addition, these data may help social media platforms make decisions on whether they will prohibit advertisements that promote or facilitate the sale of tobacco products.","journal":"Nicotine & Tobacco Research","year":2021,"id":178062,"datarank":0.4493598410330987,"base_score":2.995732273553991,"endowment":2.995732273553991,"self_citation_contribution":0.4493598410330987,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.4493598410330987,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":19,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9582,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":336193,"name":"Mignonne C. Guy","orcid":"0000-0003-4530-2013","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336192,"name":"Eric K. Soule","orcid":"0000-0003-2740-5633","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270084,"name":"Kari-Lyn K. Sakuma","orcid":"0000-0002-4722-1041","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371724,"name":"Pallav Pokhrel","orcid":"0000-0002-7906-0799","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":580266,"name":"Mohammed S. Orloff","orcid":"0000-0002-5920-0627","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":272650,"name":"Dennis R. Trinidad","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":723799,"name":"Denelle Smith","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":723800,"name":"Sharaka Browley","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":723157,"name":"Ashley Marie Walker","orcid":"0009-0000-0389-3527","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":723801,"name":"Sandilyn Bullock","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":345090,"name":"Thomas Eissenberg","orcid":"0000-0002-8277-5437","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270091,"name":"Pebbles Fagan","orcid":"0000-0003-0289-432X","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":723156,"name":"Dina M. Jones","orcid":"0000-0002-7002-0547","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":42,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:47:36.112170Z","pmid":"33400781","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}