Table 2.

Adolescent and Young Adult E-Cigarette Users’ Perceptions of E-Cigarette-Related Health Risk: Overall and by Ever and Past 30-Day Use Status

Perception				Ever-users only
	Overall n (%)	Never used (n = 2,148) n (%)	Ever used (n = 2,167) n (%)	Has not used in past 30 days (n = 906) n (%)	Has used in past 30 days (n = 1,086) n (%)
E-cigarette use increases risk of COVID because it affects lungs	3,036 (70.4)	1,667 (77.7)	1,369 (63.2)	644 (71.1)	623 (57.4)
Young people are at risk of respiratory problems due to e-cigarette use	3,699 (85.7)	1,942 (90.7)	1,757 (81.2)	818 (90.5)	811 (74.7)
There is no hard evidence that nicotine use in e-cigarettes increases risk of severe lung disease	1,244 (28.9)	425 (19.9)	819 (37.8)	218 (24.1)	533 (49.1)
E-cigarette use is safer than smoking cigarettes	2,013 (46.7)	744 (34.7)	1,269 (58.6)	461 (50.9)	721 (66.4)
Believe e-cigarettes to be harmful for their healtha				884 (97.9)	1,010 (93.2)

Note. N = 4,315. COVID = Coronavirus Disease. Values in bold type denote significant group differences for e-cigarette-related health risk perceptions between ever-users and never-users (columns 2 and 3 from left) and ever users who used in the past 30 days and ever users who did not use in the past 30 days (columns 4 and 5 from left) (${\chi }_{\text{p}}^2<.05$). Unless otherwise noted, participants rated items on a 4-point Likert-type scale, on which 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = strongly agree. We then collapsed and coded responses as follows: strongly disagree/disagree (1) and agree/strongly agree (2).

^aParticipants rated items on a 4-point Likert-type scale, from 1 = not at all harmful, 2 = slightly harmful, 3 = quite harmful, 4 = extremely harmful. We then collapsed and coded responses as follows: slightly/quite/extremely harmful (1) and not at all harmful (0).