Knowledge and Use of Electronic Cigarettes in Young Adults in the United Arab Emirates, Particularly during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Yasir Abbasi, Marie-Claire Van Hout, Mohamed Faragalla and Lynn Itani
Additional contact information
Yasir Abbasi: Maudsley Health, Dubai 1853, United Arab Emirates
Marie-Claire Van Hout: International Public Health Policy and Practice, Research and Knowledge Exchange, Public Health Institute, Faculty of Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L2 2QP, UK
Mohamed Faragalla: Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital, Emirates Health Services, Dubai 1853, United Arab Emirates
Lynn Itani: Maudsley Health, Dubai 1853, United Arab Emirates

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: (1) Background: The popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has recently increased. Although they are less harmful than regular cigarettes, they still cause health consequences and their use for smoking cessation is inconclusive. The objective of this study was to evaluate patterns of use, knowledge about, and attitude towards e-cigarettes among youth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while also researching the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on smoking behavior. (2) Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was distributed across three major universities in the UAE ( n = 240) between March and November 2021. Descriptive analysis, comparison across gender and nationality groups, and correlates between 30-day e-cigarette use and self-reported increases in nicotine consumption during the pandemic were studied. (3) Results: About 37% of students had used an e-cigarette in their lifetime, and 23% had smoked e-cigarettes in the past month. During the pandemic, 52% of university students self-reported no change in nicotine consumption, while only 17.5% had reported an increase. The current smoking of regular cigarettes, waterpipe, and medwakh increased the odds of having an increase in smoking during the pandemic by 5.3 times. (4) Conclusions: The findings inform about youth behavior and knowledge about vaping in the UAE and could also support the development of awareness interventions.

Keywords: smoking; e-cigarettes; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7828/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7828/ (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:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7828-:d:848129

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 ().