E-cigarette use among Asian Americans: a systematic review

Abstract

The use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has been rising among adolescents and adults in the United States, including among Asian Americans. However, despite being one of the largest racial/ethnic minority groups, the specific trends and patterns of e-cigarette use among Asian Americans are understudied and unclear. This review aimed to summarize relevant information in the last two decades. This systematic review followed the a priori guide outlined by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement. Articles were gathered from PsycINFO, PubMed, Sage Journals Online, ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink. Forty articles were reviewed and analyzed. Most articles reviewed only reported on the prevalence rate of e-cigarettes among Asian Americans and indicated regional differences. Results noted between- and within-group differences among racial/ethnic groups that warrant further examination. There is a dearth of information regarding health outcomes and correlates or predictors of e-cigarette use among Asian Americans. Despite its popularity and prevalence among Asian Americans, the use of e-cigarettes and related factors or outcomes deserves more nuanced studies and analyses. It is important to delineate subgroup differences by adjusting study designs and data analytic methods to glean meaningful information regarding Asian American’s e-cigarette use in the future.

Keywords:

• Electronic cigarettes
• e-cigarettes
• electronic nicotine delivery systems
• Asian Americans
• systematic review

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Molin Shi: Conceptualization, investigation, methodology, project administration, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing.

Jordan A. Gette: Conceptualization, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing.

Tre D. Gissandaner: Conceptualization, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing—original draft

Jeffrey T. Cooke: Conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft

Andrew K. Littlefield: Resources, supervision, writing—review & editing.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.