Debunking popular notions about electronic cigarettes – that they’re safer than real ones and help people quit smoking – might deter young adults from trying them, according to a study published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
They asked 1,379 20-somethings who had never tried e-cigarettes what they thought about the products, and then resurveyed the group a year later to see who had tried them.
More than 10% of those who thought e-cigarettes were less harmful than tobacco ones , but only 4.6% of those who did not, had tried e-cigarettes within a year (odds ratio, 2.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.49-3.69). Similarly, 10% who thought that e-cigarettes could help people quit smoking, but only 5.4% who did not, had tried them (OR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.29-3.04). The results were adjusted for age, sex, education, and baseline smoking status (Am. J. Prev. Med. 2014;46:175-8).
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Electronic cigarettes are rising in popularity among teens and young adults, but experts think more information about the devices could prevent potential users from getting hooked.
The findings "suggest that messages about the lack of evidence on e-cigarettes being cessation aids, and the uncertainty of the risks associated with e-cigarette use" – addiction, pneumonia, heart failure, and so on – "may discourage young adults from experimenting with e-cigarettes," said investigators Kelvin Choi, Ph.D., of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities in Bethesda, Md., and Jean Forster, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
"Although a recent review of the literature on e-cigarettes suggests that [they] may be a viable reduced-harm alternative to cigarettes, previous studies have found that experimentation with e-cigarettes was not associated with intention to quit, making quit attempts, or smoking cessation," they said.
At the 1-year follow-up, 7.4% (102) of the sample reported trying e-cigarettes, including 2.9% (28) of baseline nonsmokers. Almost 22% (53) of smokers and 11.9% (21) of former smokers had, as well, meaning that almost 12% of people who said they had quit smoking at baseline were reintroduced to nicotine through e-cigarettes, the authors noted.
Kelvin Choi
Participants were members of the Minnesota Adolescent Community Cohort. The study sample was split about evenly between men and women, and most of the subjects were white, which could limit the findings’ generalizability, the authors said. They also noted that since "smokers were more likely to drop out from the study, the prevalence of experimentation of e-cigarettes and potentially the associations between beliefs and subsequent e-cigarette experimentation could have been underestimated." A majority were enrolled in or graduated from a 4-year college.
E-cigarettes look like tobacco cigarettes but contain a device that heats liquid nicotine into a vapor, which is then inhaled.
The investigators have no disclosures. The work was funded by the National Cancer Institute.