Summary
Introduction:
This text presents the findings of a study examining the relationship between social norms for electronic cigarettes (EC) and smoking, and their associations with initiation of EC use, intentions to quit smoking, and attempts to quit smoking. The study uses data from the International Tobacco Control Project 6 European Country Survey and the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey.
Key Points:
* The study found that descriptive social norms for EC use, such as seeing EC use in public, were positively associated with the intention to quit smoking and initiation of EC use.
* having three or more close friends who smoke was negatively associated with the intention to quit.
* There was no evidence that injunctive social norms, either for smoking tobacco or for EC use, were associated with the initiation of EC use.
* The study did not find an association between social norms and attempts to quit smoking.
* The power to detect differences for some comparisons may have been limited by small cell sizes.
* The exclusion of never smokers from the current study limits the generalizability of the associations between EC social norms and the initiation of EC use.
* Future studies should seek to examine these associations in those who have never smoked.
Main Message:
The main message of this study is that social norms for EC use, specifically seeing EC use in public, are positively associated with the intention to quit smoking and initiation of EC use. This finding should allay concerns that increasing visibility and use of ECs in society is renormalizing tobacco smoking amongst current smokers. however, there was no evidence that social norms were associated with attempts to quit smoking. Overall, this study highlights the importance of considering social norms when examining tobacco and EC use.
Citation
McDermott MS, East Ka, hitchman SC, et al. Social norms for e-cigarettes and smoking: associations with initiation of e-cigarette use, intentions to quit smoking and quit attempts: findings from the EUREST-PLUS ITC Europe Surveys. European journal of public health. 2020;30:iii46-iii54. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckaa014
