Jungmi Jun, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States;, Email:
Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States.
Am J Health Behav. 2022 Jun 23;46(3):304-314. doi: 10.5993/AJHB.46.3.9.
Emerging evidence indicates that young adults who use e-cigarettes can withhold greater exposure to COVID-19 risk. We examine how young e-cigarette users perceive COVID-19 related threat of e-cigarette use and benefit of cessation as compared to traditional ones, applying the health belief model. We investigate changes of such perceptions during the pandemic and their associations with past attempt and future intent to quit e-cigarette use. We collected responses from US young adults (aged 18-25) who have used e-cigarettes in the past month by conducting 2 waves of online surveys in 2020 (wave 1, N=165) and 2021 (wave 2, N=347). Young e-cigarette users in wave 2 reported greater estimates of COVID-19 and traditional threat as well as COVID-19 and traditional benefit of quitting than wave 1. However, we also found significant increases of e-cig dependence, perceived barriers of quitting, and the percentage of young e-cigarette users (33%) who had never attempted to quit in the past month. Importantly, a COVID-19 benefit of cessation and efficacy of quitting were significantly associated with cessation intent. Ongoing efforts are required to track post-pandemic e-cigarette risk perceptions and behaviors, as well as to identify strategies to mitigate increased dependence and usage of e-cigarettes.
新出现的证据表明，使用电子烟的年轻人可以减少接触 COVID-19 的风险。我们应用健康信念模型，研究了年轻电子烟使用者如何看待电子烟使用与传统香烟相比与 COVID-19 相关的威胁和戒烟的好处。我们调查了在大流行期间这些看法的变化及其与过去尝试戒烟和未来戒烟意图的关联。我们通过在 2020 年（第 1 波，N=165）和 2021 年（第 2 波，N=347）进行两轮在线调查，收集了过去一个月使用过电子烟的美国年轻成年人（年龄在 18-25 岁之间）的回应。第 2 波的年轻电子烟使用者报告称，与第 1 波相比，他们对 COVID-19 和传统威胁以及 COVID-19 和传统戒烟好处的估计更高。然而，我们也发现电子烟依赖程度、戒烟障碍感知以及过去一个月内从未尝试戒烟的年轻电子烟使用者比例（33%）显著增加。重要的是，戒烟的 COVID-19 好处和戒烟的效果与戒烟意图显著相关。需要持续努力跟踪大流行后电子烟的风险认知和行为，并确定减轻电子烟依赖和使用增加的策略。
