Andrew Strasser, Ph.D.
Professor
Andrew Strasser is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication, co-Leader of the Tobacco and Environmental Carcinogenesis Program in the Abramson Cancer Center, and a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. He is Director of the Biobehavioral Smoking Laboratory in the CIRNA. After completing his doctorate in Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University, Dr. Strasser completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UPENN prior to joining the faculty in 2005. Dr. Strasser’s tobacco regulatory research program examines the impact of advertising, marketing and labeling on risk perceptions and tobacco product use, as well as applying objective measures of use to better understand exposure. He conducts research on a variety of tobacco products, including low nicotine content cigarettes, little cigars, and electronic cigarettes, and on product features such as menthol and filter ventilation. He has published over 125 peer-reviewed publications, with emphasis on using smoking topography to understand smoking behaviors, and eye tracking to examine advertising and warning label effectiveness. Dr. Strasser has been project leader on 12 NIH/FDA funded projects, and has served as PI of the NIH/FDA funded Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science since 2018. He is a past NIH study section member of Addictions Risk and Mechanisms (2016-2020) and is an active member of several tobacco regulatory science work groups.
Email: strasse3@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Phone: (215) 746-5788
Current Research Projects
Food and Drug Administration and Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), while implementing a provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA), issued new cigarette health warnings for cigarette packages. Pictorial warning labels (PWLs) are an effective way to communicate health risks of tobacco use and research evidence from many countries shows a significant increase in awareness of smoking harms as a result of PWL exposure. Multiple research studies have emphasized the effectiveness of pictorial warning labels compared to text-only warnings for increasing knowledge regarding smoking risks, likelihood to reduce cigarette demand and promoting quitting. The newly released warning labels include lesser-known harms of smoking such as macular degeneration, bladder cancer and erectile dysfunction. Currently, there is limited evidence on the effect of lesser-known harm warnings on attention, recall and knowledge increase of tobacco related harms. This study, as a part of the Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS), examined the effect of the newly proposed FDA PWLs on daily smokers and young adults on visual engagement, knowledge, and recall. This research is a continuation of our research program into examining how warning label features such as image, text, format, layout, congruency (convergence) of information, effect recall, credibility, knowledge, as well as visual attention patterns. Results from this research may have scientific and policy implications by providing empirical support for FDA policy on cigarette packaging regulation in tobacco products and educating smokers on the risks of smoking. Publications from this work include:
Mercincavage M, Sidhu AK, Waugh L, Kreider C, Souprountchouk V, Delneo C, Villanti AC, Strasser AA. Effects of pictorial warning labels depicting lesser-known and well-known risks of smoking on viewing patterns, recall, and knowledge of smoking harms. Drug Alcohol Depend 2023 Oct 1;251:110939. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.110939. Epub 2023 Aug 23. PMID: 37660524
Johnson AC, Mercincavage M, Tan ASL, Villanti AC, Delnevo CD, Strasser AA. Effects of reduced nicotine content cigarette advertising with warning labels and social media features on product perceptions among young adults. J Behav Med. 2023 Aug 21. doi: 10.1007/s10865-023-00441-7.
Johnson AC, Mercincavage M, Souprountchouk V, Deatley T, Mays D, Strasser AA. Assessing Attention to Tobacco Warnings With a Heatmapping Task. Am J Prev Med. 2023 May 29:S0749-3797(23)00243-X. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2023.05.020.