Prevalence and correlates of prior experimentation with e-cigarettes over conventional cigarettes among adolescents:...

As concern is increasing about electronic cigarette use among never-smoking youth, we aimed to examine the prevalence and correlates of prior experimentation of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) over conventional cigarettes (c-cigs).

We used the 10th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey in 2015, including 67960 participants as study subjects. This survey was designed as stratified multistage clustered samples from middle schools and high schools. Weighted percentages of vaping and/or smoking status by the timing of experimentation were calculated and multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted after adjustments for possible confounders (demographics, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, tobacco use pattern).

Youth who use e-cigs only or before c-cigs were 1.7% and 9.1% of any type user, respectively. In younger participants, the proportion tended to be increasing. Apart from being younger (AOR=2.23, 95% CI: 1.66-2.99; 12th grade vs 7th grade), male gender (AOR=1.20, 95% CI: 1.03-1.42), higher household income (AOR=1.21, 95% CI: 1.01-1.45), higher school performance (AOR=1.19, 95% CI: 1.02-1.39), exposure to smoke (AOR=1.63, 95% CI: 1.43-1.86) and caffeine drink (AOR=1.44, 95% CI: 1.24-1.68) were associated with experimentation with e-cigs prior to c-cigs in a fully-adjusted model. Alcohol abuse (AOR=0.57, 95% CI: 0.48-0.68) and weekday internet usage for recreation (AOR=0.69, 95% CI: 0.60-0.78) were negatively associated.

The characteristics of those who experiment with e-cigs over c-cigs may be different from the general characteristics of vaping. Considering recent e-cig epidemics, more attention should be paid to the adolescents who tend to start e-cigs first.