Summary
Introduction:
This article examines the relationship between pain severity and electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use, including e-cigarette dependence, perceived risks, and barriers to quitting. The study includes a large sample of current e-cigarette users and controls for various demographic and smoking-related variables. The findings suggest that pain severity is positively associated with e-cigarette dependence, perceived risks, and barriers to quitting, indicating that pain may contribute to e-cigarette use behaviors and beliefs.
Key Points:
* The study includes 322 e-cigarette users, with 60.2% of them being female, and an average age of 36.78 years.
* Participants reported daily e-cigarette use, with an average of 7.8 times per day.
* Pain severity was significantly and positively correlated with e-cigarette dependence, perceived risks, and barriers to quitting.
* Covariates such as sex, age, education, income, dual cigarette use, frequency of e-cigarette use, and perceived health status were controlled for in the regression analyses.
* The regression analyses showed that pain severity significantly predicted e-cigarette dependence, perceived risks, and barriers to quitting, even after controlling for the covariates.
* The observed effects were small to moderate, ranging from 2 to 10% of variance.
* The findings suggest that pain may contribute to e-cigarette use behaviors and beliefs.
Main Message:
This study provides preliminary evidence that pain severity is related to e-cigarette use behaviors and beliefs, indicating that pain may be an important individual difference factor to consider in models of e-cigarette use. The findings suggest that pain reduction methods may be helpful for e-cigarette users with co-occurring pain, and that additional research is needed to better understand the nature of relations between pain experience and e-cigarette use. The study highlights the importance of considering pain and perceived health as factors in e-cigarette use, as they may play an important role in the maintenance of e-cigarette dependence.
Citation
Zvolensky MJ, Garey L, Mayorga Na, et al. Current pain severity and electronic cigarettes: an initial empirical investigation. Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 2019;42(3):461-468. doi:10.1007/s10865-018-9995-7
