Perceived Harm of Heated Tobacco Products, E-cigarettes, and Nicotine Replacement Therapy Compared w
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Pénzes
M, Joó T, Urbán R.
Perceived Harm of Heated
Tobacco Products, E-cigarettes, and Nicotine Replacement Therapy Compared with
Conventional Cigarettes among Ever and Current Heated Tobacco Users.
Addict Behav Rep. 2022;15:100432. Published 2022 May 16.
doi:10.1016/j.abrep.2022.100432
Aims. There
is limited knowledge on how ever and current heated tobacco product (HTP) users
perceive the relative harm of various nicotine-containing products. The aim of
this study was to explore relative harm perceptions of HTPs, e-cigarettes, and
nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) relative to conventional cigarettes (CCs)
among ever versus current HTP users, and exclusive (who use only a HTP) versus
dual/poly-users (concurrent users of HTP and CCs and/or e-cigarettes).
Methods. Data
came from 1423 ever or current Hungarian adult HTP users who participated in a
cross-sectional web-based survey in 2020. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic
regression analyses were performed to explore the associations between relative
harm perceptions, HTP use patterns, past tobacco use, HTP dependence, and
socio-demographic variables.
Results. 81.2%
of the sample was current HTP users, of them 78.4% were exclusive HTP users.
Compared to CCs, 86.2% of the sample perceived HTP to be less harmful, with current
and exclusive HTP users endorsing more this belief, followed by NRT (79.8%),
and e-cigarettes (45.2%). In general, neither socio-demographic variables nor
past tobacco use, HTP use pattern, and HTP dependence were related to perceived
harmfulness across the tested products. However, there was a specific pattern
for each tested product with a set of explanatory variables.
Conclusions. Ever/current
HTP users presented misperceptions about the harms of HTPs, e-cigarettes, and
NRT. They underestimated the potential health benefits of NRT and had distorted
harm perceptions about HTPs and e-cigarettes. Public education about the
relative harms of different nicotine and tobacco products is urgently needed.
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