Changes in Harm Perception for E-Cigarettes Among Youth in the United States, 2014-2019

To evaluate the trend of harm perception for e-cigarettes and the trend of the association between harm perception for e-cigarettes and for cigarettes among US youth from 2014 to 2019.

The National Youth Tobacco Survey is an annual, cross-sectional, school-based survey done among youth selected using three-stage probability sampling.

Data were drawn from the 2014 to 2019 Surveys. A Multinomial logistic regression model was used to assess the association between harm perception for e-cigarettes and harm perception for cigarettes for each year.

The percentage of youth who perceived e-cigarettes as harmless decreased from 2014 to 2019 (17.2% to 5.8%). From 2015 to 2018, the percentage of smokers who perceived e-cigarettes as a little harmful increased (33.6% to 41.2%). The positive association between harm perception for e-cigarettes and harm perception for cigarettes became stronger with time. In 2014, the odds of perceiving e-cigarettes as harmless relative to very harmful were 19.55 times greater for youth who perceived cigarettes as harmless, compared to those who perceived cigarettes as very harmful (OR = 19.55; 95% CI: 14.19-26.94). These odds increased to 77.65 times in 2019 (OR = 77.65; 95% CI: 41.48-107.85).

This study suggests a stronger relationship between perceived harm of cigarettes and e-cigarettes with time. Interventions to prevent smoking have the potential to change e-cigarette use.