Table 3.
Claims or messages from the included websites.
| Claims | Manufacturer/retailer websites | Nonmanufacturer or nonretailers | ||||||
| Baidu (N=33), n (%) | Google (N=15), n (%) | P value | Baidu (N=17), n (%) | Google (N=35), n (%) | P value | |||
| Electronic cigarette for quittinga | ||||||||
|
|
Help quit | 22 (67) | 5 (33) | .053 | 8 (47) | 14 (40) | .86 | |
|
|
Not help quit | 1 (3) | 0 (0) | —b | 2 (12) | 7 (20) | — | |
|
|
Unclear/other | 10 (30) | 10 (67) | — | 7 (41) | 14 (40) | — | |
| Health claimsa | ||||||||
|
|
Healthier than cigarettes | 20 (61) | 7 (47) | .53 | 7 (41) | 16 (46) | .21 | |
|
|
More harmful than cigarettes | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | — | 3 (18) | 1 (3) | — | |
|
|
Unclear/other | 13 (39) | 8 (53) | — | 7 (41) | 18 (51) | — | |
| Social claims (multiple choices allowed)c | ||||||||
|
|
Less expensive than cigarettes | 3 (9) | 7 (47) | .006 | 0 (0) | 2 (6) | >.99 | |
|
|
Cleaner than cigarettes | 14 (42) | 4 (27) | .35 | 4 (24) | 4 (11) | .41 | |
|
|
More socially acceptable | 5 (15) | 3 (20) | .69 | 1 (6) | 6 (17) | .40 | |
| Age claims/warning a | ||||||||
|
|
Yes | 10 (30) | 15 (100) | <.001 | 2 (12) | 29 (83) | <.001 | |
|
|
No | 23 (70) | 0 (0) | — | 15 (88) | 6 (17) | — | |
aWhen items belonging to a variable were mutually exclusive, a single P value was obtained from chi-square test for the variable (ie, e-cigarette for quitting, health claims, and age claims).
bNot applicable.
cIf items for a variable were not mutually exclusive (ie, social claims), a P value was shown for each row from a test of null hypothesis that there was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of the item between the 2 search engines.