Motivations for using electronic cigarettes in young adults: A systematic review

Abstract

Background: The most common reasons why adults use e-cigarettes are to stop or reduce tobacco smoking. However, it is unclear if this reason is evenly distributed between young and older adults. Objectives: describe the motivations for e-cigarette use amongst young adults aged 18–25 and compare the reasons for using e-cigarettes of people who currently or formerly used tobacco products to those who had never smoked tobacco prior e-cigarette use. Methods: PubMed^®, Scopus^®, Cochrane Library^®, SocINDEX^®, PsycARTICLES^®, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection^® and PsycINFO^® databases were used. English written articles were screened up to March 2018. Depending on study design, quality was assessed using The STROBE or RATS checklists. Results: Six articles were included in the review, all with a moderate quality of evidence. Independently of smoking status, curiosity was the most frequently reported reason for initiating the use of e-cigarettes in young adults. Reasons for continuing to use e-cigarettes were various. The continued use of e-cigarettes could be either a means to replicate smoking habits, or a way for a different and personalized use of nicotine by inhalation. Conclusions: Reasons for using e-cigarettes in young adults are varied and are not limited to stopping smoking.

Keywords:

• Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS)
• e-cigarettes
• young adults
• smoking
• motivation
• health risk behaviors
• systematic review

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ms. Aurélie Delamarre for her assistance in the choice of databases. They also thank Ms. Jacqueline Pedley and Emmanuelle Maignal for English language copyediting.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Author contributions

SK and CL were responsible for screening, data extraction and quality assessment. PV read the full-text articles in case of discrepancies between SK and CL. SK produced the first draft of the paper. MA, EL and CT were responsible of interpretation of results, and revising manuscript. All authors contributed to the production of the final manuscript and approved submission.