‘Vaping’ profiles and preferences: an online survey of electronic cigarette users

Abstract

Aims to characterize e-cigarette use, users, and effects, in a sample of Electronic Cigarette Causacian, 44% educated to degree level or above. Findings 74% reported not smoking for at least a few weeks since using the e-cigarette and 70% reported reduced urge to smoke.72% of participants used a 'tank' system, most commonly, the eGo-C (23%). Mean duration of use was 10 months. Only 1% reported exclusive use of non-nicotine (0mg) containing liquid. E-cigarettes were generally considered to: be satisfying to use; elicit few side effects; be healthier than smoking; improve cough/breathing; and be associated with low levels of craving. Among ex-smokers, 'time to first vape' was significantly longer than 'time to first cigarette' (t 1104 =11.16, P <0.001) suggesting a lower level of dependence to e-cigarettes. Exsmokers reported significantly greater reduction in craving than current smokers (χ 2 1 =133.66, P<0.0007) although few other differences emerged between these groups.Compared to males, females opted more for chocolate/sweet flavours (χ 2 1 =16.16, P< 0.001) and liked the e-cigarette because it resembles a cigarette(χ 2 3 = 42.65, P< 0.001). Conclusions E-cigarettes tend to be used for smoking cessation but for a longer duration than NRT and were generally regarded as efficacious. Future research should focus on possible long-term health risks, abuse liability and cessation efficacy.

Acute electronic cigarette use: nicotine delivery and subjective effects in regular users

“…Whilst surveys and small scale clinical studies suggest successful replacement of smoking with e-cigarettes due to the presence of nicotine (Dawkins et al, 2013;Etter & Bullen, 2011;Polosa et al, 2011;Siegel, Tanwar & Wood, 2011), effects of vaping on blood nicotine levels are relatively unexplored. In the current study, a significant increase in plasma nicotine level was observed 10 mins after taking 10 puffs on the e-cigarette (from 0.74 ng/ml to 6.77 ng/ml).…”

“…If the former is the case, such individuals may be prone to relapse to smoking if they are unable to receive adequate doses of nicotine. In the case of the latter, if e-cigarettes do allow such titration, this may help to explain their appeal and the reports of successful substitution of tobacco smoking (Dawkins et al, 2013;Polosa et al, 2012) though it would also imply that the nicotine content may not be important for everyone. Either way, assessment of e-cigarette puffing topography could more accurately characterise the relationship between puffing characteristics (e.g.…”

“…Bloods could only be collected for the first 10-30 min of the study due to problems with veins, but their plasma nicotine levels 10 min after the 10 puffs suggested that the peak plasma concentration is lower than for the male participants and that the recovery period could be predictably back to baseline cravings at an earlier time than men. With such small numbers it is not appropriate to conduct statistical tests, but the effect of gender certainly merits further exploration particularly given that previous studies suggest that nicotine content may be more important for men and sensorimotor aspects more important for women smokers (Dawkins et al, 2013;Perkins et al, 1999).…”

“…Whilst surveys of users and small scale clinical studies suggest their potential for smoking cessation and harm 4 reduction (Caponneto et al, 2013;Dawkins et al, 2013;Etter & Bullen, 2011;Polosa et al, 2011) their ability to deliver nicotine is under-explored.…”

“…For example, e-cigarette and tobacco cigarette puffing characteristics differ (Trtchounian et al, 2011); there is a learning curve to efficient vaping (McQueen et al, 2011); and regular users tend to use second rather than first generation devices (Dawkins et al, 2013;Foulds, Veldheer & Berg, 2011). In order to determine whether user experience and/or characteristics of the e-cigarette itself might influence blood nicotine delivery, Vansickel and Eissenberg (2013) carried out a pragmatic test in eight experienced e-cigarette users who used their own preferred devices and strength of nicotine cartridges.…”