Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Institute for Addiction Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2022 Feb 14;24(3):416-420. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntab074.
Previous studies suggest that young adults who vape nicotine experience difficulty when answering survey items assessing the quantity of vaping. The current study asked young adults who vape to provide suggestions for improving the scientific measurement of vaping.
We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 62 young adults who vape in Los Angeles, California between June 2018 and June 2019. We analyzed participants' responses to the following question: "What do you think is the best way for us to understand how much people vape?" using thematic content analysis.
We identified two major themes: (1) challenges stemming from differences between the way researchers query about vaping and how individuals self-monitor vaping frequency, and (2) insights for future measurement of vaping. Participants reported that challenges of accurately quantifying vaping were due to inherently hard-to-answer questions (eg, puffs per day), lack of awareness of or not actively monitoring consumption of vaping products, or because vaping behaviors vary considerably between and within individuals over time, making "on-average" questions challenging. Participants discussed ideas for improving survey measures that could accurately assess vaping quantity, including querying about the type of device used, and frequency of replenishment of nicotine solutions.
Existing vaping behavior survey measures may not accurately capture the quantity of vaping as they differ from how (or if) participants track their own vaping consumption patterns. While continued research is needed to optimally refine survey measures on vaping consumption, future measures may better align with vapers' self-monitoring by including questions on device-type and replenishment frequency.
The present study provides insights regarding the variability that exists between vaping quantity measurements utilized by researchers and individuals who consume e-cigarettes. The qualitative data analyzed for this study support previous reports of difficulties faced by vapers when asked questions by researchers related to their vaping behavior. Furthermore, the present findings suggest the direction for the future development of accurate measurements of vaping frequency.
之前的研究表明，吸食尼古丁的年轻人在回答评估吸食电子烟数量的调查项目时会遇到困难。本研究要求吸食电子烟的年轻人就如何改进电子烟的科学测量方法提出建议。
我们在 2018 年 6 月至 2019 年 6 月期间，在加利福尼亚州洛杉矶对 62 名吸食电子烟的年轻人进行了半结构化定性访谈。我们分析了参与者对以下问题的回答：“您认为我们了解人们吸食电子烟的最佳方法是什么？”使用主题内容分析。
我们确定了两个主要主题：（1）研究人员查询吸食电子烟的方式与个人自我监测吸食电子烟频率的方式之间的差异所带来的挑战；（2）未来吸食电子烟测量的见解。参与者报告称，准确量化吸食电子烟的挑战是由于难以回答的问题（例如，每天的口数）、缺乏对消费的认识或没有主动监测吸食电子烟产品、或者由于吸食电子烟的行为在个体之间和个体内部随时间变化而有很大差异，使得“平均”问题具有挑战性。参与者讨论了改进调查措施的想法，这些措施可以准确评估吸食电子烟的数量，包括查询使用的设备类型和尼古丁溶液补充的频率。
现有的吸食电子烟行为调查措施可能无法准确捕捉吸食电子烟的数量，因为它们与参与者跟踪自己吸食电子烟消费模式的方式不同。虽然需要进一步研究来优化吸食电子烟消费的调查措施，但未来的措施可能通过包括设备类型和补充频率的问题更好地与吸食电子烟者的自我监测保持一致。
本研究提供了关于研究人员和吸食电子烟的个体之间使用的吸食电子烟数量测量方法存在差异的见解。对本研究进行的定性数据分析支持了之前关于吸食电子烟者在回答与他们的吸食电子烟行为相关的研究人员问题时遇到困难的报告。此外，本研究结果为未来准确测量吸食电子烟频率的发展方向提供了建议。
