TABLE 3. Characteristics of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use behaviors among adult* EVALI patients and survey respondents†,§ who reported using tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-containing products — Illinois, July–October 2019.
| Characteristic | No./Total no. (%) |
Odds ratio (95% CI)¶ | P-value¶ | Adjusted odds ratio (95% CI)** | P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVALI patients (n = 66) | Survey respondents (n = 519) | |||||
|
Sex
| ||||||
| Men |
49/66 (74) |
341/519 (66) |
1.6 (0.8–2.7) |
0.17 |
1.6 (0.9–3.0) |
0.11 |
| Women |
17/66 (26) |
178/519 (34) |
reference |
—†† |
—†† |
—†† |
|
Age group (yrs)
| ||||||
| 18–29 |
54/66 (82) |
222/519 (43) |
6.0 (3.1–11.5) |
<0.0001 |
—** |
—** |
| 30–44 |
12/66 (18) |
297/519 (57) |
reference |
—†† |
—†† |
—†† |
|
Race/Ethnicity
| ||||||
| All other racial/ethnic groups§§ |
23/66 (35) |
87/519 (17) |
2.9 (1.7–5.2) |
0.0001 |
—** |
—** |
| Unknown |
6/66 (9) |
22/519 (4) |
3.0 (1.2–7.9) |
0.03 |
—** |
—** |
| White, non-Hispanic |
37/66 (56) |
410/519 (79) |
reference |
—†† |
—†† |
—†† |
|
E-cigarette, or vaping, use behavior
| ||||||
|
Any nicotine-containing products
|
45/66 (68) |
237/361 (66) |
1.1 (0.6–2.0) |
0.69 |
1.1 (0.6–1.9) |
0.87 |
| Only nicotine-containing products |
10/45 (22) |
0/237 (0) |
—¶¶ |
—¶¶ |
—¶¶ |
—¶¶ |
| Any nicotine-containing product <1x/day,***,††† |
5/42 (12) |
16/232 (7) |
1.8 (0.5–5.6) |
0.34 |
1.4 (0.5–4.2) |
0.57 |
| Any nicotine-containing product >5x/day*** |
27/42 (64) |
178/232 (77) |
0.5 (0.3–1.1) |
0.09 |
0.8 (0.4–1.7) |
0.57 |
|
Any THC-containing products
¶¶
|
56/66 (85) |
519/519 (100) |
—¶¶ |
—¶¶ |
—¶¶ |
—¶¶ |
| Only THC-containing products |
21/56 (38) |
124/519 (24) |
1.9 (1.1–3.4) |
0.03 |
2.0 (1.1–3.6) |
0.03 |
| Any THC-containing product <1x/day*** |
7/49 (14) |
122/403 (30) |
0.4 (0.2–0.9) |
0.02 |
0.4 (0.2–1.0) |
0.04 |
| Any THC-containing product >5x/day*** |
19/49 (39) |
76/403 (19) |
2.7 (1.5–5.1) |
0.001 |
3.1 (1.6–6.0) |
0.0009 |
| Dank Vapes§§§ |
45/53 (85) |
140/391 (36) |
10.1 (4.6–22.0) |
<0.0001 |
8.5 (3.8–19.0) |
<0.0001 |
| Obtained any THC-containing product informally¶¶¶ |
48/50 (96) |
251/378 (66) |
12.1 (2.9–50.8) |
<0.0001 |
9.2 (2.2–39.4) |
0.003 |
| Both THC- and nicotine-containing products | 35/66 (53) | 237/361 (66) | 0.59 (0.3–1.0) | 0.05 | 0.56 (0.3–1.0) | 0.05 |
Abbreviations: CI = confidence interval; EVALI = E-cigarette, or vaping, product use–associated lung injury; THC = tetrahydrocannabinol.
* Online survey responses were collected during September 17–October 8, 2019. Survey respondents were asked about e-cigarette, or vaping, product use in the 3 months preceding survey completion; EVALI patients were asked about e-cigarette, or vaping, product use in the 3 months preceding symptom onset.
† Aged 18–44 years.
§ Only survey respondents who resided in one of the 28 Illinois counties with any reported outbreak-associated EVALI cases during July 31-October 15, 2019 were included in this analysis.
¶ Calculated using Pearson’s chi-square test.
** Adjusted for race/ethnicity and age group. Each adjusted odds ratio used the age group ≥30 years and non-Hispanic white as the reference group. Therefore, adjusted odd ratios for age groups and race/ethnicity are not presented.
†† Values were not calculated for reference cells.
§§ Includes survey respondents who identified as Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic other.
¶¶ Only survey respondents who reported using THC-containing e-cigarette, or vaping, products in the past 3 months were included in this analysis, therefore, odds ratios were not calculated for this e-cigarette, or vaping, use behavior.
*** Frequency of use was reported by individual product. If any e-cigarette, or vaping, product was reported as being used more than five times a day, the survey respondent or case were classified as using that class of product (e.g., nicotine- or THC-containing) more than five times/day. The same criteria were used to classify product use frequency as less than one time/day).
††† Because of small cell size, Fisher’s exact test was used to calculate the 95% CI and p-value for the unadjusted odds ratio.
§§§ Dank Vapes are a class of largely counterfeit THC-containing products of unknown provenance that are marketed under a common name and distributed through informal sources.
¶¶¶ Obtaining any THC-containing e-cigarette, or vaping, products from informal sources (a dealer, off the street, or from a friend) was compared with obtaining any THC-containing products from a formal source (store or licensed dispensary). Because online sources might be formal (e.g., a licensed dispensary) or informal, persons who reported online purchases were excluded from this analysis. No EVALI patients and <1% of public survey respondents reported online purchases.