Vaping, perceptions of vaping, and plans to quit among e-cigarette users in the United States and the United Kingdom
Menée aux Etats-Unis et en Angleterre par enquête en ligne après de 1 044 vapoteurs (âge moyen : 34 ans), cette étude analyse l'effet des politiques concernant la cigarette électronique sur les attitudes à l'égard du vapotage et les intentions d'arrêter
Government and health organizations in the US and the UK have taken different stances on e-cigarettes policy. To explore the potential effects of these policies we describe e-cigarette user characteristics, intentions to quit, and perceived attitudes toward vaping.We used the online crowdsourcing platform Prolific to conduct a cross-sectional survey of current vapers in both countries. Measures were drawn from international surveys.The sample included 1044 vapers (524 UK; 520 US) with a mean age of 34. Samples differed by gender (US: 57% male versus 45% in UK), race (US: 79% White versus 90% in UK) and employment (US: 73% employed versus 79% in UK). UK respondents were more likely than US respondents to be ever smokers (89% vs 71%, p<.0001); be daily vapers (69% vs 53%, p<.0001) and to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking (75% vs 65%, p=.0007). Most vapers in the UK and the US want to stop vaping (62% vs 61%; p=.9493), but US respondents plan to quit significantly sooner (OR 0.47, p=.0004). Attitudes differed as well. Over half (56%) of UK respondents reported their government approved e-cigarette use, and 24% felt health care providers had positive views on e-cigarettes versus 29% and 13% from the US, respectively (p=.0004 for both).Plans for quitting and perceptions regarding e-cigarettes differ markedly between demographically similar groups of vapers in the two countries. Future research should determine whether e-cigarette cessation for adults should be a public health goal, and if so, identify effective ways to stop.The contribution of this study is that it describes differences in behaviors and attitudes of vapers recruited through the same research platform and adjusted to account for minor demographic differences across country samples. For clinicians, these findings suggest that most vapers would welcome assistance in quitting. For researchers and policymakers, findings suggest that government policy regarding nicotine devices might influence behaviors and attitudes related to use, and also that future research is needed to determine effective ways to quit.