Lucy Popova
Associate Professor Health Policy & Behavioral Sciences- Education
Ph.D., Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara (2010)
M.A., Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara (2008)
B.A., Economics and Business, Westmont College (2001)
- Biography
Dr. Lucy Popova is an Associate Professor in Health Policy & Behavioral Sciences and a Second Century Initiative (2CI) scholar in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University.
Dr. Popova’s research lies at the intersection of health communication and tobacco control, focusing on creating and evaluating effective messages that use emotion and information to reduce initiation and increase quitting of tobacco products. In her studies, she uses content analysis, quantitative (surveys, randomized experiments), qualitative (focus groups, in-depth interviews), and mixed methods. Two of her publications received Paper of the Year awards.
Her research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institute of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She teaches courses on health communication and behavioral theory.
Before joining the faculty at Georgia State in 2016, Dr. Popova was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
- Publications
Select Publications
Churchill, V., Weaver, S.R., Spears, C.A., Huang, J., Massey, Z.B., Fairman, R.T., Pechacek, T.F., Ashley, D.L., & Popova, L. (2020). IQOS debut in the USA: Philip Morris International’s heated tobacco device introduced in Atlanta, Georgia. Tobacco Control. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055488
Popova, L., Owusu, D., Nyman, A., Weaver, S.R., Yang, B., Huang, J., & Ashley, D. (2019). Effects of framing nicotine reduction in cigarettes on anticipated tobacco product use intentions and risk perceptions among US adult smokers. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 21, Issue Supplement_1, S108–S116. doi: 0.1093/ntr/ntz146. PMCID: PMC6939750
Owusu, D., Lawley, R., Yang, B., Henderson, K., Bethea, B., LaRose, C., Stallworth, S., & Popova, L. (2020). “The lesser devil you don't know”: A qualitative study of smokers' responses to messages communicating comparative risk of electronic and combusted cigarettes. Tobacco Control, 29, 217-223. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054883. PMCID: PMC6821570
Popova, L., Nonnemaker, J., Taylor, N., Bradfield, B., & Kim, A. (2019). Warning Labels on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: An Eye Tracking Approach. American Journal of Health Behavior, 43(2), 406-419. doi: 10.5993/AJHB.43.2.16. PMCID: PMC6639808
Popova, L., Lempert, L.K., & Glantz, S.A. (2018). Light and mild redux: Heated tobacco products' reduced exposure claims are likely to be misunderstood as reduced risk claims. Tobacco Control, 27:s87–s95. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054324. PMCID: PMC6202239
Popova, L., Majeed, B., Owusu, D., Spears, C.A., & Ashley, D.L. (2018). Who are the smokers who never plan to quit and what do they think about the risks of using tobacco products? Addictive Behaviors, 87:62-68. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.06.024
Popova, L., Owusu, D., Weaver, S.R., Kemp, C.B., Mertz, C.K., Pechacek, T.F., & Slovic, P. (2018). Affect, risk perception, and the use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes: A population study of U.S. adults. BMC Public Health, 18:395. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5306-z
Popova, L., McDonald, E.A., Sidhu, S., Barry, R., Richers Maruyama, T.A., Sheon, N.M., & Ling, P.M. (2017). Perceived harms and benefits of tobacco, marijuana, and electronic vaporizers among young adults in Colorado: Implications for health education and research. Addiction. doi: 10.1111/add.13854
Popova, L., Owusu, D., Jenson, D., & Neilands, T.B. (2017). Factual text and emotional pictures: Overcoming a false dichotomy of cigarette warning labels. Tobacco Control. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053563
Popova, L., So, J., Sangalang, A. L., Neilands, T. B., & Ling, P.M. (2017). Do Emotions Spark Interest in Alternative Tobacco Products? Health Education and Behavior. doi: 10.1177/1090198116683169
Popova, L. (2016). Sugar-sweetened beverage warning labels: Lessons learned from the tobacco industry. Journal of the California Dental Association, 44(10), 633-640.
McDonald, E.A., Popova, L., & Ling, P.M. (2016). Traversing the triangulum: The intersection of tobacco, legalized marijuana and electronic vaporizers in Denver, Colorado. Tobacco Control. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053091
Popova, L. (2016). Can we resolve the disconnect between how communication interventions work and how we evaluate them? Health Education and Behavior, 43(2), 121-124. doi: 10.1177/1090198116629423 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26944810
Popova, L., Linde, B.D., Bursac, Z., Talcott, G.W., Modayil, M.V., Little, M.A., Ling, P.M. Glantz, S.A., Klesges, R.C. (2015). Testing anti-smoking messages for Air Force trainees. Tobacco Control. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-052477 http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2015/10/19/tobaccocontrol-2015-052477.abstract
Popova, L., & Ling, P.M. (2014). Nonsmokers' responses to new warning labels on smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes: an experimental study. BMC Public Health, 14:997. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-997. http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-14-997
Popova, L., Neilands, T.B., & Ling, P.M. (2014). Testing messages to reduce smokers’ openness to using novel smokeless tobacco products. Tobacco Control, 32, 313-321. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050723. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23467655
Grana, R. L., Popova, L., & Ling, P. M. (2014). A longitudinal analysis of e-cigarette use and smoking cessation. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(5), 812-813. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.187. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4122246/
Popova, L. (2014). Scaring the snus out of smokers: Testing effects of fear, threat, and efficacy on smokers’ acceptance of novel smokeless tobacco products. Health Communication, 29, 924-936. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2013.824063. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24359298
Popova, L., & Ling, P. M. (2013). Perceptions of relative risk of snus and cigarettes among US smokers. American Journal of Public Health, 103 (11), e21-e23. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301547. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24028247
Popova, L., & Ling, P. M. (2013). Alternative tobacco product use and smoking cessation: A national study. American Journal of Public Health, 103, 923–930. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.301070. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23488521