Table 5.
Perceived ease of access to flavored e-cigarettes, by flavor and method of acquisition.
| Very Easy,% | Somewhat Easy,% | Somewhat Difficult,% | Very Difficult,% | Mean Score1 | p-value2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Right now, how easy or difficult is it to find e-cigarettes or vapes in the following flavors? 3,4 | <0.001 | |||||
| Mint | 60.4 | 25.2 | 9.9 | 4.5 | 1.58 | a |
| Menthol | 59.9 | 25.1 | 10.7 | 4.3 | 1.59 | a |
| Fruit | 58.7 | 26.9 | 8.5 | 6.0 | 1.62 | a |
| Fruit-Ice | 49.5 | 29.1 | 15.5 | 5.9 | 1.78 | b |
| Tobacco | 47.1 | 24.3 | 17.4 | 11.2 | 1.93 | c |
| Dessert or Candy | 31.0 | 32.5 | 26.6 | 9.9 | 2.15 | d |
| Unflavored | 31.8 | 18.0 | 23.2 | 26.9 | 2.45 | e |
| Alcohol | 12.2 | 13.9 | 34.8 | 39.1 | 3.01 | f |
| Right now, how easy or difficult is it to find fruit, candy, fruit-ice combination, and/or dessert flavored e-cigarettes or vapes in the following locations? 3,4 | <0.001 | |||||
| Vape shop | 66.5 | 23.6 | 6.6 | 3.2 | 1.47 | a |
| Online | 57.7 | 22.1 | 13.5 | 6.7 | 1.69 | b |
| From friends | 44.9 | 30.8 | 14.1 | 10.2 | 1.90 | c |
| Convenience store | 34.9 | 29.9 | 24.2 | 11.0 | 2.11 | d |
| From family | 18.8 | 16.8 | 22.0 | 42.4 | 2.88 | e |
Category levels coded as 1 = very easy; 2 = somewhat easy; 3 = somewhat difficult; 4 = very difficult.
Reported p-values from Friedman tests for global differences by flavor or by location; unique letters indicate statistically significant pairwise differences by Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons).
Participants were randomized with equal probability to two different word orderings: “how difficult or easy” or “how easy or difficult” which did not yield meaningful or statistically significant differences.
Questions only asked of past 30-day e-cigarette users who responded to all items on the list (N = 1640 flavors; N = 1641 locations).