Search Results (3)

In January 2020, the FDA announced an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) flavor enforcement policy to restrict the sale of all unauthorized cartridge-based flavored e-cigarettes except tobacco and menthol flavors, which was implemented on 6 February 2020. This study aimed to understand the potential influence of this policy on one vaping behavior change—quitting vaping—using Twitter data. Twitter posts (tweets) related to e-cigarettes were collected between June 2019 and October 2020 through a Twitter streaming API. Based on the geolocation and keywords related to quitting vaping, tweets mentioning quitting vaping from the US were filtered. The demographics (age and gender) of Twitter users who mentioned quitting vaping were further inferred using a deep learning algorithm (deepFace). The proportion of tweets and Twitter users mentioning quitting vaping were compared between before and after the announcement and implementation of the flavor policy. Compared to before the FDA flavor policy, the proportion of tweets (from 0.11% to 0.20% and 0.24%) and Twitter users (from 0.15% to 0.70% and 0.86%) mentioning quitting vaping were significantly higher after the announcement and implementation of the policy (p-value < 0.001). In addition, there was an increasing trend in the proportion of female and young adults (18–35 years old) mentioning quitting vaping on Twitter after the announcement and implementation of the policy compared to that before the policy. Our results showed that the FDA flavor enforcement policy did have a positive impact on quitting vaping on Twitter. Our study provides an initial evaluation of the potential influence of the FDA flavor enforcement policy on user vaping behavior. Full article

This study assesses the use of e-cigarette devices and flavors using a large, cross-sectional survey of adolescents, young adults, and adults (N = 6131; ages 13–40 years old; M_age = 21.9) conducted from November to December 2021, 22 months after the FDA announced its prioritized enforcement policy against some flavored pod/cartridge-based e-cigarettes. We analyzed the patterns of use by age group: adolescents and young adults (AYAs) under 21 (minimum age of e-cigarette sales), young adults (21–24 years old), and adults (25–40 years old). The participants reported using e-cigarettes ever (44.2% < 21; 67.1% 21–24; 58.0% > 24), in the past 30 days (29.8% < 21; 52.6% 21–24; 43.3% > 24), and in the past 7 days (24.5% < 21; 43.9% 21–24; 36.5% > 24). Disposables were the most used e-cigarette device type across age groups (39.1% < 21; 36.9% 21–24; 34.5% > 24). Fruit, sweet, mint, and menthol flavors were popular across age groups; however, chi-squared tests for trends in proportions revealed age-related trends in past 30-day flavor use by device type. Findings suggest current AYA e-cigarette use may be higher than recorded by the NYTS 2021. The FDA, states, and localities should adopt more comprehensive restrictions on flavored e-cigarette products in order to reduce adolescent and young adult e-cigarette use. Full article

Disposable electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) became popular among youth after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) implemented an enforcement policy to restrict the sale of cartridge-based flavored e-cigarettes starting from February 2020 in the United States (US). We aimed to examine the flavors and topics related to disposable e-cigarettes on Twitter. The Twitter dataset, which includes 1489 tweets, was collected by the Tweepy streamapplication programming interface (API) using a keyword query from March to September 2020. The disposable e-cigarette flavors were curated from both online stores and collected tweets. Topics related to disposable e-cigarettes on Twitter were manually coded. Distributions of topics were compared between tweets from the US and tweets from non-US countries. The temporal analysis results showed a slight increase in the number of discussions over the study period. Strawberry, mango, watermelon, and mint were the most popular flavors of disposable e-cigarettes mentioned on Twitter. Almost all the tweets (97.11%) were commercial tweets, which were dominated by topics related to the product and flavor promotions. The US tweets focused more on product and flavor promotions and less on price promotions compared to non-US tweets. Our results suggest that companies exploited the limitations of legislation to promote flavors on Twitter, which could undermine public health and young people’s finances if they get hooked on addictive products. Full article