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Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults
Background Vaping is growing in popularity worldwide, especially among young adults. To develop effective tobacco prevention interventions, first, there must be an understanding of the attitudes and perceptions of young adults toward the use of vaping. Highlighting perception discrepancies between r...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Cureus
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10224737/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37252604 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.38202 |
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author | Golan, Roei Muthigi, Akhil Ghomeshi, Armin White, Joshua Saltzman, Russell G Diaz, Parris Ramasamy, Ranjith |
author_facet | Golan, Roei Muthigi, Akhil Ghomeshi, Armin White, Joshua Saltzman, Russell G Diaz, Parris Ramasamy, Ranjith |
author_sort | Golan, Roei |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background Vaping is growing in popularity worldwide, especially among young adults. To develop effective tobacco prevention interventions, first, there must be an understanding of the attitudes and perceptions of young adults toward the use of vaping. Highlighting perception discrepancies between races may allow physicians to more effectively counsel their patients regarding the risks of vaping. Methodology We conducted an online survey using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk, https://www.mturk.com/) to identify misconceptions about vaping among adults aged 18 to 24 years who currently vape. The survey consisted of 18 questions evaluating reasons for vaping, history of tobacco use, and thoughts on the adverse effects of vaping. The Penn State Electronic Cigarette Dependence Index was implemented to assess dependence. Exclusion criteria comprised respondents who did not vape and were under the age of 18 or over the age of 24. Results A total of 1,009 responses were received with 66% identifying as male (n = 667) and 33% (n = 332) identifying as female. Sixty-nine percent of patients smoked cigarettes or used another form of tobacco previously (n = 692). Of those respondents, 81% indicated that they had since quit using tobacco products (excluding vaping). Switching to vaping was the most common reason for quitting cigarettes or other forms of tobacco, with health concerns and social purposes being the second and third most common reasons provided, respectively. When asked whether vaping had negative health impacts, only 238 (24%) participants strongly agreed with this statement, while a majority (64%) neither agreed nor disagreed or only somewhat agreed. Most participants were white or Caucasian (n = 777). When asked whether smoking or vaping had more severe health implications, 55% of white or Caucasian participants, 41% of Asian participants, and 32% of black or African American participants indicated that vaping was worse than smoking cigarettes. The average Penn State dependence score was 8.7, suggesting medium dependence. Conclusions Our survey sample of 1,006 young adults who vape indicated that the majority did not perceive vaping as significantly harmful. A comprehensive smoking prevention policy, educational interventions, and quit support are needed to enhance awareness among young adults about the health effects associated with vaping. Such interventions should also consider the novel shift toward the replacement of smoking with vaping. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10224737 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Cureus |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-102247372023-05-28 Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults Golan, Roei Muthigi, Akhil Ghomeshi, Armin White, Joshua Saltzman, Russell G Diaz, Parris Ramasamy, Ranjith Cureus Public Health Background Vaping is growing in popularity worldwide, especially among young adults. To develop effective tobacco prevention interventions, first, there must be an understanding of the attitudes and perceptions of young adults toward the use of vaping. Highlighting perception discrepancies between races may allow physicians to more effectively counsel their patients regarding the risks of vaping. Methodology We conducted an online survey using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk, https://www.mturk.com/) to identify misconceptions about vaping among adults aged 18 to 24 years who currently vape. The survey consisted of 18 questions evaluating reasons for vaping, history of tobacco use, and thoughts on the adverse effects of vaping. The Penn State Electronic Cigarette Dependence Index was implemented to assess dependence. Exclusion criteria comprised respondents who did not vape and were under the age of 18 or over the age of 24. Results A total of 1,009 responses were received with 66% identifying as male (n = 667) and 33% (n = 332) identifying as female. Sixty-nine percent of patients smoked cigarettes or used another form of tobacco previously (n = 692). Of those respondents, 81% indicated that they had since quit using tobacco products (excluding vaping). Switching to vaping was the most common reason for quitting cigarettes or other forms of tobacco, with health concerns and social purposes being the second and third most common reasons provided, respectively. When asked whether vaping had negative health impacts, only 238 (24%) participants strongly agreed with this statement, while a majority (64%) neither agreed nor disagreed or only somewhat agreed. Most participants were white or Caucasian (n = 777). When asked whether smoking or vaping had more severe health implications, 55% of white or Caucasian participants, 41% of Asian participants, and 32% of black or African American participants indicated that vaping was worse than smoking cigarettes. The average Penn State dependence score was 8.7, suggesting medium dependence. Conclusions Our survey sample of 1,006 young adults who vape indicated that the majority did not perceive vaping as significantly harmful. A comprehensive smoking prevention policy, educational interventions, and quit support are needed to enhance awareness among young adults about the health effects associated with vaping. Such interventions should also consider the novel shift toward the replacement of smoking with vaping. Cureus 2023-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10224737/ /pubmed/37252604 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.38202 Text en Copyright © 2023, Golan et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Golan, Roei Muthigi, Akhil Ghomeshi, Armin White, Joshua Saltzman, Russell G Diaz, Parris Ramasamy, Ranjith Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults |
title | Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults |
title_full | Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults |
title_fullStr | Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults |
title_full_unstemmed | Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults |
title_short | Misconceptions of Vaping Among Young Adults |
title_sort | misconceptions of vaping among young adults |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10224737/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37252604 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.38202 |
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