Advice From Former-Smoking E-Cigarette Users to Current Smokers on How to Use E-Cigarettes as Part of an Attempt to Quit Smoking

Introduction:
This text discusses a study examining the flavor preferences of frequent e-cigarette users in the USA. The study aimed to inform the potential population health impact of e-cigarettes by assessing the first e-cigarette flavor and current e-cigarette flavors used by a large non-probabilistic sample of adult frequent e-cigarette users.

Key points:

* The study surveyed 20,836 adult frequent e-cigarette users.
* The majority of frequent e-cigarette users were using rechargeable devices with refillable tanks.
* The proportion of first e-cigarette purchases that were fruit-flavored increased from 17.8% in 2011 to 33.5% in 2016.
* Tobacco-flavored first purchases almost halved during this time (46.0% pre-2011 to 24.0% between 2015 and 2016).
* Fruit/fruit beverage, dessert/pastry, and candy, chocolate, or sweets were the most popular currently used e-cigarette flavors.
* Tobacco and menthol flavors, the two most popular flavors for initiating e-cigarette use prior to 2013, now rank as the 5th and 6th most popular currently used e-cigarette flavors, respectively.
* Adult frequent e-cigarette users in the USA who have completely switched from smoking cigarettes to using e-cigarettes are increasingly likely to have initiated e-cigarette use with non-tobacco flavors and to have transitioned from tobacco to non-tobacco flavors over time.

Main message:
The study suggests that restricting access to non-tobacco e-cigarette flavors may discourage smokers from attempting to switch to e-cigarettes. The findings indicate that adult smokers who switch to e-cigarettes may prefer non-tobacco flavors, and reducing the availability of these flavors could reduce adult smokers' interest in switching to e-cigarettes or rationalize a return to cigarette smoking among frequent e-cigarette users. Therefore, a tobacco products regulatory framework that balances adult smokers' increasing preference to try to quit smoking by using e-cigarettes that do not taste like cigarettes, with measures that reduce the appeal and use of e-cigarettes by non-smokers and youth, may accelerate the progress towards the end of the tobacco smoking epidemic.

Russell, Christopher, Tiffany Dickson, and Neil McKeganey. “Advice From Former-Smoking E-Cigarette Users to Current Smokers on How to Use E-Cigarettes as Part of an Attempt to Quit Smoking.” Nicotine & Tobacco Research 20, no. 8 (July 9, 2018): 977–84. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntx176.