Preferring more e-cigarette flavors is associated with e-cigarette use frequency among adolescents but not adults

Abstract

IntroductionMany e-cigarette users find the variety of e-cigarette flavors appealing. We examined whether preferences for e-liquid flavors and the total number of flavors preferred differed between samples of adolescent and adult e-cigarette users. We also examined whether these preferences were associated with e-cigarette use frequency for adolescents or adults, respectively.Materials and methodsThe analytic samples comprised 1) 396 adolescent, past-month e-cigarette users from 5 Connecticut high schools who completed an anonymous, school-based survey in Fall 2014 (56.1% male; 16.18 [1.18] years; 42.2% past-month smokers), and 2) 590 adult, past-month e-cigarette users who completed an anonymous, MTurk survey in Fall 2014 (53.7% male; 34.25 [9.89] years; 51.2% past-month smokers).ResultsCompared to adults, a larger proportion of adolescents preferred fruit, alcohol, and “other”-flavored e-liquids, whereas adults disproportionately preferred tobacco, menthol, mint, coffee, and spice-flavored e-liquids (p-values < .05). Adults also preferred a greater total number of flavors compared to adolescents and used e-cigarettes more frequently (p-values < .001). Flavor preferences uniquely were associated with frequency of e-cigarette use within the adolescent sample; the total number of flavors preferred was associated with more days of e-cigarette use (ηp2 = 0.04), as were preferences for fruit (ηp2 = 0.02), dessert (ηp2 = 0.02), and alcohol-flavored (ηp2 = 0.02) e-liquids.ConclusionsFlavor preferences differed between adolescent and adult samples. While youth reported less frequent e-cigarette use overall, their preferences for specific flavors and the total number of flavors preferred were associated with more days of e-cigarette use, indicating that flavor preferences may play an important role in adolescent e-cigarette use.

Role of flavours in vaping uptake and cessation among New Zealand smokers and non-smokers: a cross-sectional study

“…However, our findings provide some tentative evidence that e-cigarette flavours, particularly fruit flavours, are more important to younger people than to older people. These findings are consistent with other studies highlighting the importance of flavours to young people,11 12 18 19 and with results regarding adults’ flavour preferences, which appear more varied 20…”

“…Second, alluring flavour names, such as Honey Bear, Tropical Bomb and Good Morning Sunshine, may attract young people to vaping in the same way that evocative brand names and packaging once lured them to smoking 10–12. Uptake of vaping among young people will increase the potential risks they face relative to remaining smoke-free and vape-free, and public health researchers and policy-makers agree that non-smokers should not start vaping 13…”

See you in court: obstacles to enforcing the ban on electronic cigarette flavours and marketing in Finland

“…In 2014, on English language websites there were almost 8000 named flavours for e-cigarettes. 15 There is increasing evidence that flavours attract youngsters to use e-cigarettes, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] making them nicotine dependent and exposing them to the other ingredients of e-cigarettes. The safety of flavours, in most cases, has been tested only for use as food additives but not when heated and vaped into the lungs.…”

Associations between trying to control weight, weight control behaviors and current electronic cigarette usage in middle and high school students: A cross-sectional study in Zhejiang Province, China

“…In light of these facts, understanding why adolescents use e-cigarettes is vital for informing e-cigarette regulatory efforts. Considerable research has explored the possible reasons and motivations for e-cigarette use among adolescents and findings show that curiosity, as well as appealing flavors, smoking cessation, health benefits and peer influences are involved [14][15][16][17] . In addition to these reported reasons and motivations for e-cigarette use among adolescents, recent literature reports that adult individuals who have higher weight concerns and use e-cigarettes for weight loss/control are more likely to use e-cigarettes frequently 18,19 .…”