Symptoms during Adolescents’ First Use of Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes: A Pilot Study

May S. Chen, Marissa G. Hall, Humberto Parada, Kathryn Peebles, Kaitlyn E. Brodar and Noel T. Brewer
Additional contact information
May S. Chen: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Marissa G. Hall: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Humberto Parada: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Kathryn Peebles: Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington Seattle; Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Kaitlyn E. Brodar: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Noel T. Brewer: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-7

Abstract: Symptoms adolescents experience during their first time using a cigarette predict their current use, but little is known regarding the symptoms experienced during first e-cigarette use. We conducted a pilot study to understand the symptoms adolescents experience when they first tried cigarettes and e-cigarettes and the associations between these symptoms and current use. Participants were 41 adolescents in two U.S. cities who had tried cigarettes or e-cigarettes. We asked adolescents to recall the symptoms they experienced during their first cigarette or e-cigarette and categorized symptoms as negative (felt bad, coughing/chest pain, bad taste, upset stomach, dizzy/lightheaded) or positive (felt relaxed, rush/buzz). Adolescents reported fewer negative symptoms for first e-cigarette than first cigarette use (all p < 0.05). Current cigarette smoking was associated with endorsing fewer negative symptoms (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = [0.25, 0.95]) and more positive symptoms (OR = 7.11, 95% CI = [1.47, 34.33]) at first cigarette use. First e-cigarette use symptoms were not associated with current e-cigarette use. Adolescents reported fewer negative symptoms from first e-cigarette than from first cigarette, and e-cigarette symptoms did not influence use as they do for cigarettes. Additional research is needed to confirm these findings in longitudinal studies.

Keywords: electronic cigarettes; tobacco; addiction; adolescents; smoking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1260/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1260/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:10:p:1260-:d:115729

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().