Intention to Use E-Cigarettes to Quit Smoking: A Reasoned Action Approach

ABSTRACT

Background: Some electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users report using these products to quit smoking combustible cigarettes. Purpose: Using the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA), we sought to develop, confirm, and explore a measure of current smokers’ intentions, attitudes (instrumental and experiential), social norms (injunctive and descriptive), and perceived behavioral control (capacity and autonomy) to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking. Methods: A sample of US young adults completed one of two cross-sectional online surveys. For the first sample (n = 315) exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to examine the structure of the original 31-item instrument. The second sample (n = 315) confirmed the model using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) tested the constructs’ ability to predict intention. Results: SEM indicated instrumental attitudes (p < .05), experiential attitudes (p < .01), and injunctive norms (p < .05) predicted young adults’ intentions to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking (r² = 0.43). Discussion: Further exploration is needed to determine if intention to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking is predictive of short- and long-term smoking abstinence. Translation to Health Education Practice: Health educators should emphasize the experience of using e-cigarettes, the importance of quitting cigarettes completely, and injunctive norms who support young adults switching to these devices.

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/19325037.2020.1822238.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland Faculty Research Program.