Vaping, Smartphones, and Social Media Use Among Young Adults: Snapchat is the Platform of Choice for
Friday, August 14, 2020
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Massey ZB, Brockenberry LO,
Harrell PT.
Vaping, Smartphones, and
Social Media Use Among Young Adults: Snapchat is the Platform of Choice for
Young Adult Vapers.
[published online ahead of print, 2020 Jul 26]. Addict Behav. 2020;112:106576.
doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106576
Background: Tobacco
use often begins or stabilizes in young adulthood. Approximately 90% of young
adults use social media and over 80% own a smartphone. Retailers of electronic
nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) have targeted smartphones and social media
with adverting campaigns. Despite evidence of ENDS advertising on social media
and smartphones, few studies have examined associations between exposure to
vaping advertisements on smartphones, social media use, and ENDS use (i.e.,
vaping) among young adults.
Methods: College
students aged 18-24 from a large public university (N = 1047) completed online
surveys about vaping. The survey measured frequency of vaping advertisement
exposure, smartphone use, social media use, and vaping behaviors. Hierarchical
logistic regression assessed whether demographics, vaping advertisement
exposure, smartphone use, and social media use predicted ever vaping compared
to never vaping.
Results: The
four most commonly used platforms (used "daily") were Snapchat
(80.0%), Instagram (73.4%), YouTube (59.7%), and Facebook (54.3%). Use of
Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook were all significantly associated with higher
rates of vaping advertisement exposure via smartphones. Exposure to vaping
advertisements on smartphones was associated with ever vaping (AOR: 1.30, 95%
CI = 1.05-1.60). Of the social media platforms examined, only Snapchat use
frequency was associated with higher odds of ever vaping (AOR: 1.22, 95% CI =
1.10-1.36).
Conclusions: Exposure
to advertisements via smartphones and use of Snapchat were associated with
higher rates of vaping for young adults. Social media and smartphone use should
be further investigated for young adult impact.
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