Reasons for electronic cigarette use: Differences based on sex and young adult status

Reasons for electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use among adults differ based on demographics, and understanding these differences is essential to tailoring cessation interventions. The aim of this study is to examine differential e-cigarette use reasons based on sex and young-adult status.

In total, 965 (42.2% women; 31.1% young adults) adults completed the Reasons for E-cigarette Use Questionnaire, which measures eight motivations for nicotine vaping. Participants also completed demographic and tobacco use measures. Questionnaires were completed on the Prolific crowdsourcing platform. Participant data were grouped by sex (male vs. female) and age group (young adult (≤29 years old) vs. older adult) and analyzed using factorial analysis of variance.

Younger adults endorsed higher social influence motives for use than did older adults, but older adult men also endorsed higher social influence motives than older adult women. Men were more likely than women, and older adults were more likely than young adults, to use e-cigarettes for harm reduction. Younger adults endorsed lower smoking cessation motives, but younger women reported lower cessation motivations than younger men. Young adults endorse higher experiential and flavor motives, but lower dependence use motives. Women endorsed higher dependence motives for use than men.

This study builds upon existing research for e-cigarette use, particularly showing differences based on sex and young adult status.

Our findings may inform interventions designed to reduce e-cigarette use and harms, as this is among the first studies to explore age and gender differences in e-cigarette use.