PinneyAssociates, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
PinneyAssociates, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Addict Behav. 2024 Nov;158:108124. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.108124. Epub 2024 Aug 2.
The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) provides annual prevalence data on youth use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). However, trends may be complicated by COVID-related changes in survey mode (self-completed vs. telephone interview) across 2019-2021.
Trends in past 30-day (P30D) ENDS use over PATH waves 5 (2019; 100 % self-completed), 5.5 (2020; 100 % telephone interview), and 6 (2021; 33.5 % self-completed, 66.5 % telephone interview) were examined among continuing youth, overall and within survey mode. Further analyses examined the nature of these changes by examining 1) potential response biases in social contexts of nicotine use, and 2) sources of ENDS over time.
Telephone interviewees were less likely to report ENDS use (4.6 % vs. 8.6 % for self-completers), and more likely to report social disapproval of nicotine use, suggesting a reporting bias in telephone interviews. Survey-mode-naïve analyses suggested a large decline in P30D ENDS use prevalence between 2019-20 (10.2-4.6 %) followed by an apparent uptick in 2021 (5.9 %); however, comparing like-to-like survey modes showed a more modest decline (10.2 % in 2019; 8.6 % in 2021; self-completed) with no change between 2020 and 2021 (4.6 % in both; telephone interviews). Analyses suggested that the mode effects were partly, but not wholly, related to social desirability effects.
Changes in PATH survey mode introduced artifacts into ENDS use prevalence, possibly due in part to social desirability bias suppressing reporting in telephone interviews, rather than a true uptick. It is essential to account for survey mode in PATH surveys.
人口评估烟草与健康（PATH）提供了关于年轻人使用电子尼古丁传送系统（ENDS）的年度流行率数据。然而，在 2019-2021 年期间，由于调查模式（自我完成与电话访谈）的 COVID 相关变化，趋势可能会变得复杂。
在 PATH 波 5（2019 年；100%自我完成）、5.5（2020 年；100%电话访谈）和 6（2021 年；33.5%自我完成，66.5%电话访谈）中，对过去 30 天（P30D）ENDS 使用的趋势进行了检查，包括持续的年轻人总体和调查模式内的趋势。进一步的分析通过检查以下内容来检查这些变化的性质：1）尼古丁使用社会背景下的潜在反应偏差，以及 2）ENDS 的来源随时间的变化。
电话受访者报告使用 ENDS 的可能性较小（4.6%比自我完成者的 8.6%），并且更有可能报告社会对尼古丁使用的不赞成，这表明电话访谈中有报告偏差。调查模式新手分析表明，2019-20 年间 P30D ENDS 使用流行率大幅下降（10.2%-4.6%），随后 2021 年明显上升（5.9%）；然而，比较类似的调查模式显示，下降幅度较小（2019 年为 10.2%；2021 年为 8.6%；自我完成），2020 年至 2021 年之间没有变化（电话访谈中均为 4.6%）。分析表明，模式效应部分但不完全是与社会期望效应有关。
PATH 调查模式的变化给 ENDS 使用流行率带来了假象，这可能部分是由于电话访谈中的社会期望偏差抑制了报告，而不是真正的上升。在 PATH 调查中，必须考虑调查模式。
