The impact of e-cigarette price changes on vaping and smoking behaviors

Abstract

Background: Understanding the relations between e-cigarette prices and e-cigarette/cigarette use may shed light on the possible impact of e-cigarette regulations on public health. Objectives: This study aimed to assess potential impacts of e-cigarette price changes on vaping and smoking behaviors by smoking status (current, former, and never smokers) and e-cigarette type (pre-filled only vs. refillable). Methods: A total of 918 US-based adult e-cigarette users completed an online survey, designed to assess behavioral intention of e-cigarette/cigarette use in hypothetical situations with varying prices of e-cigarettes, in 2017. Results: With reduction in e-cigarette prices, more than 50% of current smokers reported they would reduce or quit smoking, but with greater increases in price, the rates of not only those who would quit (12.5–19.4%), but also those who would increase smoking rose (15.1–25.1%). Current smokers (vs. former/never) were more likely to increase e-cigarette use at reduced e-cigarette prices. Among current smokers, pre-filled users were less likely to quit smoking with reduced prices. At higher prices, pre-filled users were more likely to quit e-cigarettes (former smokers), but also more likely to start smoking (never smokers). Among former smokers, recent quitters were more likely to restart smoking with any e-cigarette price changes, and less likely to reduce or quit e-cigarettes with increased prices. Conclusions: Both smoking and e-cigarette use seem to be sensitive to e-cigarette price changes. Increases in e-cigarette price may have both positive and negative effects on smoking behavior, and e-cigarette price changes may disproportionately affect pre-filled users and recent quitters.

Keywords:

• electronic cigarette
• vaping
• price change
• smoking
• smoking status
• e-cigarette type

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 Percentage of completed MTurk tasks that were approved by requesters.

2 presented where the price of e-cigarettes decreases.

3 presented where the price of e-cigarettes increases.

4 For “time since quit smoking,” the response categories described in the measurements section were used as a continuous variable as greater number reflects longer duration. We also recoded the variable such that it reflects a proportionate increase in duration (i.e., 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 60, 90), and used it as a predictor. The findings (direction and significance) did not differ from the original models (presented above).

Additional information

Funding

The project described was supported by Fordham University (Dr. Minami's startup funds). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Fordham University.