Table 3.

Regression Model of Association Between Health Perceptions and E-Cigarette Use in the Past 30 Days Among Ever E-Cigarette Users (n = 1,988)

Characteristic	Used an e-cigarette in past 30 days
	OR [95% CI]	aOR [95% CI]
Age range
22—24 years (reference)		1.00
18—21 years	0.71 [0.56, 0.89]	0.86 [0.67, 1.11]
13—17 years	0.44 [0.35, 0.56]	0.52 [0.40, 0.67]
Gender
Male (reference)		1.00
Female	0.52 [0.43, 0.63]	0.75 [0.61, 0.93]
Other	0.72 [0.38, 1.35]	0.87 [0.43, 1.75]
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White (reference)		1.00
Non-Hispanic African American/Black	1.42 [1.08, 1.86]	1.24 [0.92, 1.66]
Hispanic or Latino	1.33 [1.07, 1.67]	1.19 [0.93, 1.53]
Non-Hispanic Other	1.40 [1.05, 1.86]	1.21 [0.89, 1.65]
E-cigarette use increases the risk of COVID-19 because it affects the lungs	0.70 [0.63, 0.77]	0.89 [0.79, 1.01]
Young people are at risk of respiratory problems due to e-cigarette use	0.54 [0.47, 0.60]	0.68 [0.59, 0.78]
There is no hard evidence that e-cigarette use with nicotine increases risk of severe lung disease	1.92 [1.72, 2.15]	1.61 [1.42, 1.82]
E-cigarette use is safer than smoking cigarettes	1.51 [1.36, 1.68]	1.26 [1.11, 1.42]
E-cigarette harmfulness perceptiona
Not at all harmful (reference)		1.00
Harmful	0.29 [0.18, 0.49]	0.52 [0.30, 0.90]

Note. COVID-19 = COVID-19 = Coronavirus Disease 2019; OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval; aOR = adjusted odds ratio. Values in bold type are significant, controlling for all other variables. Unless otherwise noted, participants rated items on a continuous 4-point Likert-type scale, on which 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = strongly agree.

^aHarmfulness perceptions were rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale, on which 1 = not at all harmful, 2 = slightly harmful, 3 = quite harmful, 4 = extremely harmful. We then collapsed responses into a binary variable, indicating not at all harmful compared with all other responses.