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Abstract
Objective
This study assessed the relationship between health literacy, perceptions of traditional and electronic cigarettes, and smoking status among college students.
Participants
Participants (N = 150; Mage= 20.41 years, SD 3.48), included nonsmokers (78%) and smokers (21%) of traditional (12%) and e-cigarettes (17%).
Method
Participants completed a novel questionnaire to assess perceptions of traditional and e-cigarettes, and the Health Literacy Skills Instrument to evaluate health literacy.
Results
Traditional cigarettes were perceived as having a greater negative impact on physical health than e-cigarettes, whereas e-cigarettes were perceived as having a greater positive impact on social-emotional health than traditional cigarettes. Most participants (57%) had below basic health literacy skills.
Conclusions
This study did not find a relationship between health literacy skills and smoking status or smoking perceptions. Further research is needed to investigate correlates of smoking status and perceptions to inform prevention and cessation efforts.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Rachel Albertand several anonymous reviewers for providing helpful feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.
Conflict of interest disclosure
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the the Lebanon Valley College Institutional Review Board.
Funding
No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.