Getty Pictures
The variety of younger New Zealanders aged 15 to 17 who vape day-after-day has tripled in two years, from 2% in 2018-19 to six% in 2020-21, based on the newest New Zealand Well being Survey. For younger adults, aged 18 to 24, day by day vaping elevated from 5% to fifteen%.
One other nationwide survey targeted on Yr 10 college college students exhibits these will increase are particularly excessive for Māori women. Round one in 5 Māori women aged 14 to fifteen reported vaping day by day in 2021.
Will increase in common vaping (outlined as vaping a minimum of month-to-month) are additionally massive, notably for Māori boys (19% in 2019 to 31% in 2021) and women (19% to 41%).
Whereas producers declare vapes are decrease danger alternate options for individuals who smoke cigarettes, many individuals who vape have by no means smoked.
If solely people who smoke took up vaping, we’d anticipate to see will increase in vaping to be offset by equal decreases in smoking. As an alternative, the expansion in day by day vaping exceeds the decline in day by day smoking.
Had vapes by no means been launched, many younger non-smokers could not have began utilizing any nicotine merchandise. Our new analysis helps clarify why non-smokers begin vaping.
5 elements that lead younger non-smokers to vaping
The producers and promoters of vapes have been criticised for youth-centric promotions utilizing social media influencers and music occasion sponsorship. Some retailers have additionally circumvented latest legal guidelines aimed toward stopping youth from being uncovered to attractive vape merchandise and e-liquid flavours.
Regulating business actions to stop youth vaping ought to stay an vital focus of coverage, analysis and monitoring. However the private explanation why younger non-smokers begin vaping might present extra insights and methods to scale back the issue.
Our analysis, printed within the journal PLOS One, is predicated on in-depth face-to-face interviews with 16 younger adults, aged 18 to 25, who self-identified as common vapers (from day by day to a minimum of a few instances every month). Utilizing a qualitative method, we recognized 5 elements that helped clarify what had led these younger non-smokers to vaping.
Learn extra:
Vape sellers are utilizing in style music movies to advertise e-cigarettes to younger folks – and it is working
Two of those elements – connection and belonging, and balancing social standing and stigma – had been psycho-social in nature. Vaping is a extremely social exercise, going down predominantly in shared flat settings or at events. Being a part of a peer group the place a vape was circling helped reinforce relationships by a collective expertise.
The communal nature of vaping additionally helped present an entry to social teams the place individuals had beforehand felt on the periphery. As an illustration, one participant loved how his vape piqued others’ curiosity and acted as a dialog starter, whereas one other defined how vaping helped him “slot in” at events.
The second theme, balancing social standing and stigma, displays the way in which vapes can develop into a private style assertion. One participant described her vape as “glossy and […] simply my sort of fashion”. For others, vaping supplied a chance to impress with “expertise and methods” they mastered when exhaling aerosol.
These attributes fostered social cachet and helped offset the perceived stigma many individuals felt as non-smokers who vaped. That stigma, they believed, didn’t apply to individuals who had switched from smoking to vaping, as one participant defined:
In the event you take some time to get off smoking and get onto vaping, you get much more respect for it […] in comparison with individuals who simply do it for the sake of it.
The attract of vaping
Other than psycho-social elements, vapes attracted non-smokers by offering stimulation and engagement. Unsurprisingly, the wide range of vape liquids that mimic confectionery or gentle drink flavours attracted and maintained younger adults’ curiosity. Individuals additionally skilled blowing clouds as whimsical, and lots of expressed an virtually child-like fascination with the aerosol they exhaled.
A number of individuals vaped as a way of self-management, to alleviate stress or boredom, nervousness or awkwardness. A minority started vaping deliberately to handle their weight, utilizing sweet-flavoured vape liquids as a alternative for “stress consuming”. The effectiveness of this method is just not clear.
Lastly, individuals used rationalisations about vapes’ prices and advantages relative to smoking to justify their vaping. They believed vapes supplied a number of advantages, akin to pleasure, connections and social cachet, with out the “prices” they related to smoking cigarettes, together with monetary and long-term well being harms in addition to disagreeable odour and nausea.
As one participant defined, vaping “doesn’t appear anyplace close to as dangerous as cigarettes […] I really feel much less responsible about utilizing it”.
Research limitations and implications
One limitation of our work is that information assortment passed off earlier than higher-strength “pod” gadgets akin to JUUL and Vuse and disposable vapes akin to Fruitia and SOLO entered the market.
Pods and disposables are in style with younger folks and permit excessive nicotine concentrations in e-liquids, as much as 60mg/ml, with out inflicting a harsh sensation within the mouth and throat. Proof suggests the bulk (a minimum of 80%) of youth and younger adults who vape at the moment use nicotine, whereas a 2019 examine instructed solely round 1 / 4 of vaping college college students used nicotine.
Learn extra:
A damning overview of e-cigarettes exhibits vaping results in smoking, the alternative of what supporters declare
This limitation means our examine could not have totally captured the position of nicotine dependancy in sustaining vaping.
Whereas latest laws have restricted the widespread, aggressive advertising and marketing of vaping merchandise, social media promotion nonetheless continues. Vaping merchandise can be found at quite a few shops and there are not any restrictions on producers or retailers making “reduced-harm” advertising and marketing claims.
Quick access and “lower-risk” advertising and marketing messages doubtless normalise vaping and the idea that vaping is a secure exercise. Instructional efforts aimed toward youth, such because the Bronchial asthma Basis’s Don’t Get Sucked In marketing campaign, could assist counter concepts that vaping is low-risk.
Nonetheless, instructional campaigns may have a restricted impression if merchandise stay extensively out there and interesting, and social advertising and marketing is just not an alternative to efficient coverage. In mild of quickly growing youth vaping, it’s time to rethink the widespread availability of vaping merchandise in comfort shops and supermarkets and using eye-catching packaging and flavours that attraction to younger folks.
Lindsay Robertson receives funding from the Royal Society Marsden Fund, the Nationwide (NZ) Coronary heart Basis, and Otago Medical College Basis Trusts. She has beforehand been supported by funding from: Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Well being Analysis Council of New Zealand, the Most cancers Society of New Zealand, Otago College (Division of Preventive and Social Medication), Lottery NZ Well being Analysis, and the Bronchial asthma and Respiratory Society of Aotearoa/ New Zealand. She is a member of ASPIRE 2025, a College of Otago Analysis Centre whose researchers work to help the federal government's Smokefree 2025 purpose.
Janet Hoek receives funding from the Well being Analysis Council of New Zealand and Most cancers Society of New Zealand; she has beforehand held grants from the Royal Society Marsden Fund. She co-directs ASPIRE 2025, A College of Otago Analysis Centre whose researchers work to help the Authorities's Smokefree 2025 purpose. She has served on authorities, crown entity and NGO advisory teams to help public well being coverage objectives.