Prospective predictors of flavored e-cigarette use: A one-year longitudinal study of young adults in the U.S

Introduction:
This article summarizes a study examining the prospective predictors of young adults' flavored e-cigarette use in the United States. The study uses data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a nationally representative cohort study of U.S. youth and adults. The study aims to identify wave 1 predictors of wave 2 flavored e-cigarette use among young adults aged 18-34.

Key Points:

* The study found that 8.0% of young adults used e-cigarettes in the past month, with 5.5% using non-tobacco and non-menthol (NTM) flavors and 2.5% using tobacco and menthol (TM) flavors.
* Wave 1 predictors of wave 2 flavored e-cigarette use included younger age, female gender, education attainment of high school graduate and higher, marijuana use, non-past-month cigarette smoking, never cigarette smoking, and lower harm perception of e-cigarettes.
* Black young adults were less likely to use NTM flavored e-cigarettes than white young adults.
* The study found that e-cigarette use was more prevalent among young adults with higher education attainment than TM flavor use, suggesting that motivations for using e-cigarettes vary between higher and lower educated young adults.

Main Message:
The study highlights high rates of NTM flavor use among young adults and identifies specific predictors of NTM flavored e-cigarette use. Regulation and prevention efforts for curbing flavored e-cigarette use among young adults should focus on these risk factors and high-risk groups, such as 18-24-year-olds, females, and never cigarette smokers. The study also highlights the need for further research into how flavored e-cigarettes are marketed and promoted differently between white and racial and ethnic minority young adults and whether these discrepancies lead to disparities in flavored e-cigarette use.

Chen, Julia Cen, Kerry M. Green, Amelia M. Arria, and Dina L.G. Borzekowski. “Prospective Predictors of Flavored E-Cigarette Use: A One-Year Longitudinal Study of Young Adults in the U.S.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 191 (October 2018): 279–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.07.020.