Does a 10-puff bout reflect natural puffing patterns for electronic nicotine delivery systems?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Tobacco Control
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are widely used, but user puffing behavior is not well understood.
• Standardized 10-puff procedures in laboratory settings may not accurately reflect real-world ENDS use patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how users group puffs into clusters during electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use.
• To compare naturalistic puffing patterns with standardized laboratory procedures.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed puffing data from 8 studies using a consistent definition of puff clusters (puffs separated by <60 seconds).
• Categorized clusters into single, short (2-5 puffs), medium (6-10 puffs), and long (>10 puffs).
• Examined cluster frequency, puff count per cluster, and percentage of total puffs, exploring variations based on pre-session abstinence and puffing duration.

Main Results:

• Single and small puff clusters were the most frequent types across most studies.
• Small clusters accounted for the largest percentage of total puffs (37.12%), followed by single puffs (28.55%).
• Puff cluster patterns remained consistent regardless of pre-session abstinence or puffing bout length.

Conclusions:

• The majority of ENDS puffs occur as single or small clusters, totaling 67.0% of all puffs.
• The standard 10-puff method used in laboratory research does not accurately represent naturalistic ENDS puffing behavior.
• Findings highlight a discrepancy between laboratory research conditions and actual user behavior.