In this GFN Science Lab presentation, Layla Malt explores findings from two actual-use studies involving 850 adults who smoke, examining how flavour preferences, motivation, cravings, and risk perceptions relate to changes in smoking behaviour.
The analysis highlights the role of non-tobacco flavours, consumer experiences, and individual preferences in the transition away from cigarettes, alongside follow-up data extending to 24 weeks.
Transcription:
GFN Science Lab 3 — Layla Malt
2026-06-05 · 11:30-13:00 (Europe/Warsaw) · Global Forum on Nicotine 2026
Sud Patwardhan 0:00:11
So, Dr. Layla Malt, her presentation, please. Thank you.
Video 0:00:16
Hello, my name is Layla Malt and I'm the Behavioural Sciences and Surveillance Senior Manager at Imperial Brands. And today I'm presenting all the key findings from a secondary analysis of two actual use studies we conduct in our vape product bloom. As a responsible manufacturer, Imperial Brands has developed a multi-stage, multidisciplinary scientific assessment framework.
This supports evidence-based assessment of product safety and substantiates the tobacco harm reduction potential of our next-generation products, and this framework includes behavioural research. At last year's GFN, we shared findings from two parallel actual use studies using an innovative methodology. Participants tried either Blue 2.
0, our rechargeable pod-based vape, or Blue Bar, our disposable device. The study showed clear tobacco harm reduction potential, with many adults who smoke substantially reducing or repacing their cigarette use with blue products. Among this journey, flavour choice appeared to play an important role.
Building on this, we conducted a targeted secondary analysis to better understand the factors that may drive harm reduction behaviours within this group. Looking more closely at the secondary analysis of Blue 2.0, fresh mint emerges the most consumed individual flavour. Overall fruit flavoured pods were used most frequently, followed by menthol and then tobacco.
Participants who switched or substantially reduced their smoking showed a clear preference for fruit flavours, indicating that non-tobacco flavours may play an important role in supporting the transition away from smoking. Flavour preferences varied by age and gender among those who substantially reduced their smoking.
Male participants showed more stable flavour preferences with a consistent preference for fresh mint. Female participants, however, demonstrated greater flavour exploration, with blueberry ice, berry mix and golden tobacco used more prominently alongside their use of fresh mint.
Among those aged 19 to 24, fresh mint was the most consumed flavour, accounting for around 70 to 80% of pod use. Those aged 25 and above most commonly used fresh mint alongside blueberry ice. among those aged 45 to 64 we observed an increase in golden tobacco flavour during week five and six.
Turning to the blue bar secondary data, one flavour clearly stood out, Banana ice was consistently the most consumed flavour overall across the majority of the study period, with blueberry ice, blueberry sourers and strawberry ice showing high and stable use.
Among those who substantially reduced their smoking, male participants showed more distinct flavour patterns over time, whilst female participants demonstrated more flavour variation, with high week-to-week variation observed. Lightest overall usage was among participants aged 19 to 24, with variable flavour use and no consistent flavour preference.
In contrast, those aged 25 to 44 years old most commonly selected banana ice, blueberry ice, kiwi passion fruit and strawberry ice, while participants aged 45 and over flavoured banana ice, kiwi passion fruit, blueberry sour razz and grape ice.
Participants who switched to Blue Bar consistently used multiple flavours more often than single flavour users, suggesting flavour variety may support the successful transition away from smoking, consistent with our previously presented findings.
We observed a consistent increase in motivation to stop smoking across the study period, with the largest increase occurring between baseline and week 2. The linear regression projecting motivations to stop smoking at week 6 indicates that switchers report significantly higher motivations than non-switchers. Among blue 2.
0 participants, higher motivation to stop smoking is significantly more likely to show a positive behavioural change. have examined which variables were significant predictors of change in cigarettes per day at the end of the study period. In the Blue 2.0 study, key predictors were motivations to stop smoking, urge to smoke, and relief from cravings.
For Blue bar participants, a broader set of factors were significant predictors, including pus per day, motivations to stop smoking, urge to smoke, risk perceptions, relief from cravings, and satisfaction. When we repeated the analysis for the 24-week follow-up data, relief from cravings remained a significant predictor in the blue 2.
0 study, while pus per day and urge to smoke continued to be significant predictors in the blue bar study. Together, these findings can inform future research into the tobacco harm reduction potential for our products. Participants showed a good understanding of relative risk and recognised vaping as less harmful than smoking. Among Blue 2.
0 participants, this was especially true for older adults who smoke as they were more likely than younger participants to hold accurate relative risk perceptions of vaping.
Overall, our secondary analysis demonstrated that among those who completed the six-week questionnaire, having a more accurate understanding of relative risk is associated with a higher probability of reducing cigarettes per day or switching entirely.
We also saw that being both older and perceiving vaping as less harmful increases the probability of positive behavioural change. This study provides real-world evidence highlighting the importance of non-tobacco flavours in supporting adults who smoke to transition away from cigarettes.
The analysis also identified key motivational and experiential factors that may underpin tobacco harm reduction behaviours. The findings support that Blue has the potential to make a meaningful contribution to tobacco harm reduction, Imperial Browns is committed to advancing tobacco harm reduction science in support of data-driven, evidence-based proportionate regulation.
Finally, I'd like to acknowledge RBRC and CSUR who conducted the actual yeast studies and analysed the initial study findings, and my colleagues at Imperial Browns who contributed to the secondary analysis presented here.
Layla Malt 0:05:43
Brilliant. Thank you so much for the opportunity to contribute to today's session. I wanted to use my time to add a little bit of more depth and build upon some of the key messages that you've just seen in my recording around the behaviour changes that we observed and some of the drivers that might be underpinning them.
So as you saw, our analysis is based on two actual use studies that we conducted, where a total of 850 adults who smoke were recruited. The studies were designed very intentionally to reflect as close as possible real-world conditions. And they retained full autonomy of product use. They were not directed to use the products.
But what was really important is that participants were able to purchase their blue products from local retail communities through the use of a prepaid debit card.
So this was really critical because it allowed us to track more authentic behaviour, but also track consumer sort of journeys and how they may evolve over time, which generated, as you can imagine, a very rich data set, which is allowing us now to do this further analysis.
I shared last year that both studies demonstrate that blue has a significant potential to help adults who smoke to either completely stop smoking or substantially reduce their cigarette smoking. And we also presented data that these behavioural changes appeared quite quickly, with the majority of smoking reduction occurring around week one.
And what was great to see is that they were broadly maintained at week 24, which was the follow-up period where we checked back in with our participants. And that's quite interesting because between the end of the observation period at week six to week 24, the free provision of blue had ended. So we saw that behaviour, the positive behavioural changes maintained.
What the further analysis adds is insights into why some of these changes might be happening. And I want to kind of touch on three areas, and the first being motivations to stop smoking. So we saw that they consistently increased over the six weeks, more rapidly within the first weeks and peaking at the end of the observation period.
And at the same time, we actually saw that cigarettes per day at week six was a strong negative indicator of motivations to stop smoking. So meaning that heavier cigarette consumption at this time point was associated with lower motivations in our study cohort.
More broadly, as I pointed out, we saw that motivations to stop smoking, urge to smoke, relief from cravings and product satisfaction, really more practical factors such as comfort of using the product in public, were significant predictors of changes in CPD. I said CPD, sorry, cigarettes per day.
And so what this indicates is that we're seeing an interplay between both motivations and those sort of lived experiences of consumers and how well these products are meeting the needs of those consumers in real world use conditions and in their real lives, how well are they fitting into their lives and their needs personally.
Last year, I also presented data demonstrating that flavours appeared to be a key driver in positive behavioural changes. And greater use of flavour variety and greater use of blue was associated with positive outcomes. And just to highlight what I put in the video, we saw that in the Blue 2.
0 study, 78% of those individuals who at week six had switched to blue or substantially reduced their smoking were using the non-tobacco flavoured pod.
So this kind of gave us the indication that actually flavours is probably somewhere we should look into a little bit deeper into the data and the further analysis and see if we can see any changes or any insights around flavours. And we did, particularly around gender and age.
So as you saw, the female cohorts in our studies demonstrated greater flavour exploration, which could indicate like an iterative process of them finding something that works for them or something they like, or it could simply mean a preference for more flavour variety, while the male participants showed more stable and consistent flavour preferences.
We also saw in terms of age, among the blue 2.0 participants, those younger adult participants, so age 19 to 24, showed a really strong preference for fresh mint, and that accounted for the vast majority of their flavour usage, whilst older adult participants, so 25 and above, also reported a preference for fresh mint, but alongside a preference for the fruit flavours.
And with the blue bar participants, again, our younger adults showed the lightest overall usage and no consistent flavour preference. But again, the older adult participants demonstrated a clear preference towards fruit flavours. And this sort of indicates a broader engagement with fruit flavours among older adult participants.
And I think this insight is particularly relevant because when we think about the broader policy and scientific discussions that are happening around non-tobacco flavours, there's a dual focus on preventing unintended use, particularly among youth, so those under the age of 18, and demonstrating a population-level benefit.
And so our findings actually suggest that flavours and fruit flavours are of particular importance to older adult consumers. And they add more broadly to the body of literature that talks at that point that flavours are not just simply around preference, but are part of the mechanism that supports adults who smoke to move away from continued smoking.
And it sort of emphasizes the need for proportionate evidence-based regulation that both protects against youth uptake, but also allows adult consumers access to a range of fruit flavours to fully realise the tobacco harm reduction potential of these products.
The final insight I wanted to just add to is around relative risk perceptions, which are generally accurately held among our participants. The participants held accurate relative risk perceptions of vaping compared to smoking in the Blue 2.0 study.
We found that older participants, and at this point it was 45 years and above for older participants, were more likely to report accurate risk perceptions than younger adult participants.
And accuracy seemed to matter when you started looking at behavioural outcomes because we found that holding a more accurate perception of relative risk was associated with a higher probability of transitioning to blue or reducing cigarette consumption.
So in other words, those individuals who understood the relative risks of vaping to smoking were more likely to make a positive behavioural change. And again, I think it's really important, it emphasizes that point around the necessity for clear and accurate and accessible risk communication in terms of relative risks to our consumers.
What was particularly interesting as well that you saw is that this effect was amplified with age. So being both an older participant and reporting vaping is less harmful increased your probability of behavioural change.
And in summary, essentially, overall our findings from these studies and the secondary analysis demonstrate some real nice real world evidence of how these products can make a meaningful contribution to tobacco harm reduction. and help us understand some of the mechanisms that might be driving that change.
But ultimately, all of it points to quite a simple fact that there isn't a one size fits all solution. And every adult who smokes journey will be different. And understanding those barriers and drivers is going to be critical if we want to realise the full tobacco harm reduction potential of next generation products. Thank you. I'll take any questions.
Sud Patwardhan 0:14:04
Thank you so much, Layla. I really appreciate you taking us through some of the findings through a follow-on bunch of lines. Thank you so much. If there are two quick questions, please, and then we move on to Dr. Thomas. Well, I have a question. I have a bunch of questions, actually.
So look, there was a lot of, if I was to kind of start looking at the data from a gender perspective, there's a lot of interesting, almost social anthropological stuff happening from a behavioural perspective. Anything deep happening there, or is it just purely preferential stuff?
Layla Malt 0:14:39
So I think that's a really good point to highlight. And in terms of this analysis, I can't substantiate anything else to say from it. I think what I would like to add is that the more you look into things, the more complicated things become, which makes sense because humans are complicated, multifaceted.
And whilst the analysis hasn't gone down into more detail around the gender, your question just sparks the conversations that have been happening around snus and tobacco-free nicotine pouches in Sweden. And I think Clarissa...
was saying earlier that female smokers, actually when the introduction of tobacco-free nicotine pouches came into Sweden, just moved across because they were not using snus, generally speaking. And that general alternative product was the thing that those individuals needed to move away.
So I think relating that back to our product, our sort of findings, it might be just our study cohort or it might be that females or different kind of demographics are looking for different things and they need different needs met and so it really harks back to ensuring that not only are products available but that there's a range of broad products that are available for individuals so they're able to find the product that helps them essentially transition away.
Sud Patwardhan 0:16:12
Thank you so much. I picked up that line, one size doesn't fit all. And we should pick that up again in the later part of the last part of the conversation.