Associations between use of specific social media sites and electronic cigarette use among college students

Abstract

Objective

To examine dose-response associations between use of specific social media sites and the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and traditional cigarettes.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study of 298 first-year college students enrolled in the fall 2019 semester at a large state university. Heckman selection and Probit model were used to estimate associations between use of specific social media sites and e-cigarette/traditional cigarette use.

Results

Each additional hour per day spent on Snapchat was associated with a 4.61% increase in the probability of lifetime e-cigarette use. In addition, among current e-cigarette users, more time spent on Snapchat was associated with more frequent e-cigarette use (marginal effects: 0.13, p = 0.001). Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram were not associated with traditional cigarette smoking.

Conclusion

Snapchat was the only major social media platform associated with both lifetime and current e-cigarette use.

Keywords:

• College students
• electronic cigarette
• two-part model
• social media

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 and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of George Mason University.

Notes

1 Thos

e who answered “vape once or twice” or “once in a while but not regularly.”

2 Those who answered “vape regularly in the past” or “regularly now.”

3 Anger level was a T-Score converted continuous variable derived from the Level 2—Anger—Adult (PROMIS Emotional distress—Anger—5 questions Short form).

4 Anxiety level was a T-Score converted continuous variable derived from the PROMIS—Anxiety—8 questions Short form.

5 Depression level was a T-Score converted continuous variable derived from the PROMIS—Depression—8 questions Short form.

6 PTSD symptom was measured by the a 20 items PTSD checklist for DSM-5.

Additional information

Funding

The Mason Cohort study is supported by a grant from George Mason University’s Institute for Biohealth Innovation.