Perceptions of Tobacco Product-specific COVID-19 Risk and Changes in Tobacco Use Behaviors among Smo
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
White
AM, Li D, Snell LM, O'Connor R, Hoetger C, Croft D, Lester RC, McIntosh S,
Underwood M, Schneller L, Breland A, Barnes AJ, Cobb CO, Ossip DJ.
Perceptions of Tobacco
Product-specific COVID-19 Risk and Changes in Tobacco Use Behaviors among
Smokers, E-cigarette Users, and Dual Users.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 Mar 30:ntab053. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntab053. Epub ahead of
print. PMID: 33782707.
Introduction.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health crisis, but its effects
on tobacco users remain ill-defined. This report aimed to assess the
relationship between tobacco product-specific risk perceptions for COVID-19 and
changes in tobacco use since the start of the pandemic.
Methods. A
sample (n=776) of past-30 day exclusive smokers (n=238), exclusive e-cigarette
users (n=143), and dual users (n=395) residing in the US and aged 18 or older
was collected using Mechanical Turk from April 27 to June 8, 2020. Adjusted
associations between tobacco product-specific COVID-19 risk perceptions (i.e.
risk that smokers/vapers are at for COVID-19 relative to
non-smokers/non-vapers) and changes in tobacco use since the pandemic began
were assessed using partial proportional odds models.
Results. A
majority of those who used cigarettes (63.7%) and e-cigarettes (56.1%) felt
that the risk of COVID-19 was greater for users of their tobacco product than
for non-users. Twenty-four percent of smokers had increased their cigarette use
since the start of the pandemic and 28.0% had decreased. Similarly, 27.3% of
e-cigarette users had increased their e-cigarette use since the start of the
pandemic and 23.8% had decreased. Higher risk perceptions for COVID-19 were
associated with reductions in tobacco use since the pandemic began for
exclusive e-cigarette users and dual users.
Conclusions.
These findings provide support that tobacco product-specific COVID-19 risk
perceptions may be an important correlate of changes in tobacco use during the
pandemic. Targeted information to inform tobacco users regarding their risks
for COVID-19 is needed during this public health crisis.
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