Assessing the effects of social media based anti-tobacco campaigns on tobacco use among youth in Virginia: an agent-based simulation approach.

ABSTRACT: Anti-tobacco campaigns contributed to the great decline of adolescent cigarette smoking in the United States from 2000 to 2022. However, studies on the ways in which campaigns are designed and disseminated on social media to generate optimal impact are limited. We aim to examine the effect of various campaign designs implemented under different structures of social-network influencers on reducing tobacco use among youth in Virginia. An agent-based model (ABM) was deployed from bottom-up to project the influence of anti-tobacco media campaign intervention and social media influencers on students' smoking decisions. High school students in ninth grade reporting never smoking were followed for 48 months through 12th grade. Simulation models assessed student smoking behaviors, accounting for p

SUBMITTER: Lin SY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12529265 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature