Table 3.
E-cigarette-related beliefs and intentions by sex, age and smoking status, among adolescents and young adults (aged 15–30 years) in China, November–December 2021 (N=560)
| Total | Sex | Age (years) | Smoking status | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Females | Males | 15–21 | 22–30 | Never | Previous | Current | |||
| Perceived e-cig characteristics# | N=560 n (%) | N=260 n (%) | N=300 n (%) | N=303 n (%) | N=257 n (%) | N=264 n (%) | N=107 n (%) | N=189 n (%) | |
| Contain chemicals | 396 (71) | 175 (67) | 221 (74) | 220 (73) | 176 (68) | 174 (66) | 71 (66) | 151 (80) | |
| Are bad for your health | 400 (71) | 176 (68) | 224 (75) | 229 (76) | 171 (67) | 200 (76) | 69 (64) | 131 (69) | |
| Are addictive | 368 (66) | 169 (65) | 199 (66) | 213 (70) | 155 (60) | 185 (70) | 68 (64) | 115 (61) | |
| Contain nicotine | 368 (66) | 166 (64) | 202 (67) | 207 (68) | 161 (63) | 177 (67) | 67 (63) | 124 (66) | |
| Can explode and cause injury | 296 (53) | 139 (53) | 157 (52) | 183 (60) | 113 (44)*** | 154 (58) | 38 (36) | 104 (55) | c |
| Help people quit cigarettes | 289 (52) | 132 (51) | 157 (52) | 160 (53) | 129 (50) | 127 (48) | 44 (41) | 118 (62) | b |
| Vapor is harmless water vapor | 235 (42) | 106 (41) | 129 (43) | 139 (46) | 96 (37) | 114 (43) | 35 (33) | 86 (46) | |
| Never users’ intentions^ | N=346 | N=177 | N=169 | N=199 | N=147 | N=255 | N=37 | N=54 | |
| Curious to use | 179 (52) | 94 (53) | 85 (50) | 80 (40) | 99 (67)*** | 116 (45) | 23 (62) | 40 (74) | a |
| Use if close friend offered | 80 (23) | 37 (21) | 43 (25) | 31 (16) | 49 (33)*** | 41 (16) | 10 (27) | 29 (54) | a |
| Intend to use in next year | 71 (21) | 36 (20) | 35 (21) | 27 (14) | 44 (30)*** | 33 (13) | 7 (19) | 31 (57) | a,b |
| Minors (aged 15–17 years) | N=86 | N=21 | N=65 | N=62 | N=10 | N=14 | |||
| Perceived ease of access in store | |||||||||
| Not at all | 28 (33) | 7 (33) | 21 (32) | NA | NA | 26 (42) | 1 (10) | 1 (7) | |
| Somewhat | 50 (58) | 12 (57) | 38 (58) | NA | NA | 30 (48) | 8 (80) | 12 (86) | |
| Easy | 8 (9) | 2 (10) | 6 (9) | NA | NA | 6 (10) | 1 (10) | 1 (7) | |
| Perceived ease of access online | |||||||||
| Not at all | 24 (28) | 7 (33) | 17 (26) | NA | NA | 16 (26) | 4 (40) | 4 (29) | |
| Somewhat | 41 (48) | 8 (38) | 33 (51) | NA | NA | 35 (56) | 2 (20) | 4 (29) | |
| Easy | 21 (24) | 6 (29) | 15 (23) | NA | NA | 11 (18) | 4 (40) | 6 (43) | |
E-cig: e-cigarette. Analyses exclude those who had never heard of e-cigarettes/vaping. Bold text denotes significant differences.
***
Significant difference by sex/age at p<0.001.
a
Never vs current smoker significantly different at p<0.001.
b
Previous vs current smoker significantly different at p<0.001.
c
Never vs previous smoker significantly different at p<0.001.
#
Selected ‘Agree’ or ‘Strongly Agree’ on 5-point scale: ‘Strongly Disagree’ to ‘Strongly Agree’.
^
Selected ‘Probably yes’ or ‘Definitely yes’ on a 4-point scale: ‘Definitely not’ to ‘Definitely yes’. NA: not applicable.