Adolescents’ Exposure to Anti-Vaping Media: Its Effects on Attempt to Quit Vaping and Susceptibility to Future Vape Use
- Wang, Jijiang
- Advisor(s): Zhu, Shu-Hong
Abstract
Background: Vaping prevalence among U.S. adolescents rose dramatically from 2017 to 2019. It then started to decline. Two large-scale media activities during 2018 and 2019 were considered to possibly contribute to making 2019 an inflection point. One was the aggressive anti-vaping advertising orchestrated by public health agencies. The other is the extensive earned media surrounding the outbreak of EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury) in 2019. We examined the effects of media exposure on current vapers’ intention to quit vaping, attempts to quit vaping, and non-users’ susceptibility to future vape use.Methods: Data were from the 2017-18 and 2019-20 California Student Tobacco Survey and an online tobacco media analysis engine TobaccoWatcher. Survey participants’ tobacco-related media exposure, their intention and attempts to quit vaping, and susceptibility to use vapes in 2017-18 and 2019-20 were compared. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to examine the effects of media exposure on adolescents’ intention and attempts to quit vaping, and susceptibility to use vapes. Results: The rate of adolescents being exposed to anti-vape advertisements increased significantly from 2017-18 to 2019-20 and the ratio of anti-vaping over pro-vaping advertisements also increased, from 1.43 to 2.28. Most adolescents (75%) were aware of the EVALI outbreak and identified media as their primary source of information. Most of them believed nicotine caused EVALI, an erroneous attribution that reflected the inaccuracy in media reports. Among the current users of vapes, their intention to quit vaping increased significantly from 2017-18 to 2019-20 and their rate of attempt to quit vaping almost doubled. Meanwhile, Non-users' susceptibility to using vapes decreased significantly. Both exposure to anti-vaping advertisements and awareness of the EVALI outbreak were associated with increased intention and attempts to quit vaping. Awareness of the EVALI outbreak was negatively associated with susceptibility to use vapes. Conclusion: The significant increase in current users’ quitting and decrease in non-users’ susceptibility to use contributed to making 2019 an inflection point for adolescent vaping prevalence. Adolescents’ perception of an increasingly anti-vaping media environment and their exposure to extensive news reports on EVALI were two significant factors modifying vaping-related attitudes and behavior among adolescents.