Melissa Abadi, Ph.D., mabadi@pire.org
Kirsten Thompson, M.A., kthompson@PIRE.org
Sharon Lipperman-Kreda, Ph.D., skreda@prev.org
Joel W. Grube, Ph.D., grube@prev.org
Camila Aramburu, M.P.H., caramburu@PIRE.org
We examined associations between daily environmental influences and daily use of e-cigs and tobacco cigarettes among 37 adolescents (ages 14-17) living in Kentucky. Each day for 14 days, participants reported whether they were exposed to others’ use of e-cigs and tobacco cigarettes, as well as whether they saw ads for e-cigs or tobacco in their neighborhood, near school, online/social media, or in other media. Adolescents also reported frequency of vaping e-cigs for nicotine and smoking tobacco cigarettes, as well as their willingness and intentions to use either substance the next day.
Controlling for demographics, results of multilevel mixed effects linear regression models showed that daily perceived exposure to e-cig marketing (b=0.68, p=0.04) and seeing peers using e-cigs on a given day (b=1.86, p=0.001) were positively associated with greater daily frequency of e-cig use. Daily perceived exposure to e-cig marketing was marginally associated with daily willingness to use e-cigs (b=0.05, p=0.05). Seeing adults (OR=4.11, p=0.02) and peers (OR=6.10, p=0.00) smoking tobacco on a given day were positively associated with greater intention to use e-cigs the next day. Daily greater willingness (b=2.24, p=0.00) and intention (b=3.76, p=0.00) to use e-cigs the next day were positively associated with daily frequency of e-cig use. Greater daily frequency of e-cig use was not associated with greater daily frequency of tobacco cigarette use or with intention to smoke tobacco the next day. However, greater daily frequency of e-cig use was positively associated with greater willingness to use tobacco cigarettes the next day (b=0.01, p=0.01).
Our study is one of the first to use EMA to examine within-persons associations of e-cig and tobacco cigarette use among adolescents. Results suggest that daily exposure to peer e-cig use, exposure to e-cig marketing, and greater intentions and willingness to use e-cigs the next day may influence greater daily frequency of e-cig use. Interestingly, daily e-cig use was not associated with daily tobacco use or intentions to use to use tobacco the next day, but it was associated with willingness to use tobacco the next day.
Funding: This research is supported by grant 1R03DA041899-01A1 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse Research (NIDA), grant 25IR-0029 from the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) and grant P60-AA006282 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIDA, TRDRP, NIAAA or NIH.
Topic: Public Health – epidemiology
Key Words: adolescent/youth; e-cigarettes
