Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, 5116University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Psychology, 5116University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
J Drug Educ. 2021 Sep;50(3-4):98-107. doi: 10.1177/00472379221106365. Epub 2022 Jun 9.
Vape shops specialize in the sales of e-cigarettes and other vaping products. In recent studies, young adults who use e-cigarettes have tended to identify with at-risk peer crowds. This is the first study to examine vape shop customers' clientele. Composed primarily of young adults and persons in early middle adulthood, we speculated that a relatively high prevalence of those who appeared to bystanders as radical/extreme (at-risk) customers would be identified as such at these shops. We recruited vape shops throughout Southern California (N = 44 shops), and trained teams of data collectors visited each of the consented vape shops, making note of 451 customers' appearance, including features such as manner of dress, presence of tattoos, and hairstyles. Customers were then coded as either belonging to a conventional, progressive, or radical/extreme crowd based on outward appearance. Of the customers observed, 223 (49%) were rated as appearing to be in the conventional crowd; 169 (38%) were rated as appearing to be in the progressive crowd, and only 59 (13%) were rated as appearing to be in the radical/extreme crowd. The conventional crowd tended to appear older. Clientele may reflect that more conventional young and early middle age adults are tempted to visit vape shops due to perceptions of greater acceptability or safety of e-cigarettes. E-cigarette mass media campaigns aimed at protecting potential vape shop customers from harm may need to depict more conservative-looking characters.
电子烟店专门销售电子烟和其他电子烟产品。在最近的研究中，使用电子烟的年轻人往往认同有风险的同龄人圈子。这是第一项研究电子烟店顾客群体的研究。这些顾客主要由年轻人和处于中年早期的人组成，我们推测，在这些商店里，会有相当比例的看起来像旁观者的激进/极端（有风险）顾客被认定为这样的顾客。我们在南加州各地招募电子烟店（N=44 家店），并培训数据收集团队访问每家同意的电子烟店，记录 451 名顾客的外貌，包括穿着、纹身和发型等特征。然后根据外表将顾客分为传统、进步或激进/极端群体。在所观察到的顾客中，223 人（49%）被评为属于传统群体；169 人（38%）被评为属于进步群体，只有 59 人（13%）被评为属于激进/极端群体。传统群体往往看起来更年长。顾客群体可能反映出更多传统的年轻和中年早期成年人因为认为电子烟更可接受或更安全而被吸引到电子烟店。旨在保护潜在电子烟店顾客免受伤害的电子烟大众媒体宣传活动可能需要描绘更保守的形象。
