Gender Difference in the Association Between E-Cigarette Use and Depression among US Adults

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the association between e-cigarette use and depression and examine how this association is different by gender among US adults. METHODS: Data from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends was used, and included 174,351 of 230,875 US adults aged 18 years and older. Data were analyzed using the multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS: After adjusting for age, race, education, income, marital status, employment status, smoking status, and physical activity, firstly, “current daily e-cigarette users” (AOR = 2.487, p < 0.001), “current non-daily e-cigarette users” (AOR = 1.623, p < 0.001), and “former e-cigarette users” (AOR = 1.573, p < 0.001) were associated with increased odds of depression compared with “never e-cigarette users.” Secondly, women were associated with increased odds of depression compared with men (AOR = 1.797, p < 0.001). Finally, male “current daily e-cigarette users” (AOR = 1.366, p < 0.01) were associated with increased odds of depression compared with female “never e-cigarette users.” CONCLUSION: Thus, even though women tend to be more vulnerable to depression compared with men, e-cigarette use was positively associated with depression among both men and women.