A Cross-Sectional Study of Electronic Cigarette Use Among Chinese Adult Populations in Four Cities of China. Part I. Questionnaire Survey

Abstract

Summary The use of electronic cigarettes (ECs) has grown exponentially over the past few years in China. To obtain the basic information of Chinese EC users, a questionnaire survey was performed to collect the data that describe characteristics of study populations, including daily usage, consumption preference, and risk perception. Volunteers were recruited from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen cities of China. In total, among the 511 participants that were included in the analysis, 491 participants (95%) used refillable ECs in the past 3 months. There was a strong association between EC use and traditional cigarette smoking. The majority of participants were dual users and the number of cigarettes smoked decreased with the use of ECs. After using an EC, 20.7% of conventional cigarette smokers attempted to quit smoking. Young people were the primary users across all geographic locations. Specifically, the daily usage for the participants who were 18–39 years old, was higher than those over 40 years old. The majority of participants (59.9%) preferred fruit flavors and 57.8% of them used 1–5 mg/mL nicotine-concentration liquids. Most EC users are motived to quit smoking, and 74.6% claimed that the ECs had no irritant effect on the oral cavity. A total of 50.5% of family members of the study participants reported an improvement of health status while the participants used ECs instead of traditional cigarettes. Overall, the results of this Chinese survey indicate that the per-day cigarette consumption of the dual users decreased whereas their proportion of smokers of low-“tar” cigarettes increased.