Potential Impact of FDA Flavor Enforcement Policy on Vaping Behavior on Twitter

Zidian Xie (), Jinlong Ruan, Yifan Jiang, Bokai Zhang, Tianlang Chen, Jiebo Luo and Dongmei Li ()
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Zidian Xie: Department of Clinical & Translational Research, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642, USA
Jinlong Ruan: Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
Yifan Jiang: Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
Bokai Zhang: Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
Tianlang Chen: Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
Jiebo Luo: Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
Dongmei Li: Department of Clinical & Translational Research, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-8

Abstract: In January 2020, the FDA announced an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) flavor enforcement policy to restrict the sale of all unauthorized cartridge-based flavored e-cigarettes except tobacco and menthol flavors, which was implemented on 6 February 2020. This study aimed to understand the potential influence of this policy on one vaping behavior change—quitting vaping—using Twitter data. Twitter posts (tweets) related to e-cigarettes were collected between June 2019 and October 2020 through a Twitter streaming API. Based on the geolocation and keywords related to quitting vaping, tweets mentioning quitting vaping from the US were filtered. The demographics (age and gender) of Twitter users who mentioned quitting vaping were further inferred using a deep learning algorithm (deepFace). The proportion of tweets and Twitter users mentioning quitting vaping were compared between before and after the announcement and implementation of the flavor policy. Compared to before the FDA flavor policy, the proportion of tweets (from 0.11% to 0.20% and 0.24%) and Twitter users (from 0.15% to 0.70% and 0.86%) mentioning quitting vaping were significantly higher after the announcement and implementation of the policy ( p -value < 0.001). In addition, there was an increasing trend in the proportion of female and young adults (18–35 years old) mentioning quitting vaping on Twitter after the announcement and implementation of the policy compared to that before the policy. Our results showed that the FDA flavor enforcement policy did have a positive impact on quitting vaping on Twitter. Our study provides an initial evaluation of the potential influence of the FDA flavor enforcement policy on user vaping behavior.

Keywords: electronic cigarette; FDA flavor enforcement policy; demographic; Twitter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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