Changes in Harm Perception for E-cigarettes among Youth in the United States, 2014-2019.
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Namwase
AS, Gyimah EA, Carothers BJ, Combs TB, Harris JK.
Changes in Harm Perception
for E-cigarettes among Youth in the United States, 2014-2019.
[published online ahead of print, 2022 Oct 19]. Am J Health Promot.
2022;8901171221133805. doi:10.1177/08901171221133805
Purpose. To
evaluate the trend of harm perception for e-cigarettes and the trend of the
association between harm perception for e-cigarettes and for cigarettes among
US youth from 2014 to 2019.
Design, setting and
subjects. The National Youth Tobacco Survey is an annual,
cross-sectional, school-based survey done among youth selected using
three-stage probability sampling.
Analysis. Data
were drawn from the 2014 to 2019 Surveys. A Multinomial logistic regression
model was used to assess the association between harm perception for
e-cigarettes and harm perception for cigarettes for each year.
Results. The
percentage of youth who perceived e-cigarettes as harmless decreased from 2014
to 2019 (17.2% to 5.8%). From 2015 to 2018, the percentage of smokers who
perceived e-cigarettes as a little harmful increased (33.6% to 41.2%). The
positive association between harm perception for e-cigarettes and harm
perception for cigarettes became stronger with time. In 2014, the odds of
perceiving e-cigarettes as harmless relative to very harmful were 19.55 times
greater for youth who perceived cigarettes as harmless, compared to those who
perceived cigarettes as very harmful (OR = 19.55; 95% CI: 14.19-26.94). These
odds increased to 77.65 times in 2019 (OR = 77.65; 95% CI: 41.48-107.85).
Conclusion. This
study suggests a stronger relationship between perceived harm of cigarettes and
e-cigarettes with time. Interventions to prevent smoking have the potential to
change e-cigarette use.
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