Prevalence and correlates of prior experimentation with e-cigarettes over conventional cigarettes among adolescents: Findings from the 2015 Korea Youth Risk Behaviour Web-based Survey

INTRODUCTION: As concern is increasing about electronic cigarette use among never-smoking youth, we aimed to examine the prevalence and correlates of prior experimentation of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) over conventional cigarettes (c-cigs). METHODS: We used the 10th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey in 2015, including 67960 participants as study subjects. This survey was designed as stratified multistage clustered samples from middle schools and high schools. Weighted percentages of vaping and/or smoking status by the timing of experimentation were calculated and multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted after adjustments for possible confounders (demographics, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, tobacco use pattern). RESULTS: Youth who use e-cigs only or before c-cigs were 1.7% and 9.1% of any type user, respectively. In younger participants, the proportion tended to be increasing. Apart from being younger (AOR=2.23, 95% CI: 1.66–2.99; 12th grade vs 7th grade), male gender (AOR=1.20, 95% CI: 1.03–1.42), higher household income (AOR=1.21, 95% CI: 1.01–1.45), higher school performance (AOR=1.19, 95% CI: 1.02–1.39), exposure to smoke (AOR=1.63, 95% CI: 1.43–1.86) and caffeine drink (AOR=1.44, 95% CI: 1.24–1.68) were associated with experimentation with e-cigs prior to c-cigs in a fully-adjusted model. Alcohol abuse (AOR=0.57, 95% CI: 0.48–0.68) and weekday internet usage for recreation (AOR=0.69, 95% CI: 0.60–0.78) were negatively associated. CONCLUSIONS: The characteristics of those who experiment with e-cigs over c-cigs may be different from the general characteristics of vaping. Considering recent e-cig epidemics, more attention should be paid to the adolescents who tend to start e-cigs first.