Attempt to Quit Smoking by Electronic Cigarette Use among Smoking Adolescents in Korea

Abstract

Introduction Adolescent smoking has remained as major challenge in public health worldwide. Strengthening of smoking policy, adolescent smoking rates in Korea have consistently declined over the past decade. In contrast, the use of electronic cigarette increased because tobacco companies promoted the e-cigarette as smoking cessation aid. There is a controversial whether e-cigarettes have an effect on quitting smoking. This study examines whether e-cigarette is effective as a smoking cessation aid.

Method This study used Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Surveys(KYRBS) in 2015 ∼ 2016. KYRBS is a nationwide cross-sectional survey conducted annually. For the study analysis, types of smokers were categorized into 2 groups

cigarette only user and dual user. For the response variable, experience of attempting to quit smoking were used. To examine the association between attempt to quit smoking and e-cigarette use among cigarette smoker, frequency analysis, Chi-square test and logistic regression were used.

Result The lower school performance, the higher the weekly allowance, the more alcohol they drink and stress perceived, the more smoking friends, the higher frequency of attempt to quit smoking among dual users. As the smoking use increases, the proportion of attempt to smoking cessation increased among dual user. The association of smoking cessation among dual user versus cigarette user by frequency was 2.299(95% CI = 1.76-3.002) at 20-29 days. When smoking 6-9 amount a day, the association of attempt to smoking cessation was the highest(OR=2.04 95% CI = 1.900-2.636).

Conclusion As cigarette use increased, attempt to smoking cessation was also higher. Cigarette smoking days were higher in dual users even though they tried to quit smoking. It means e-cigarette actually works synergy with the use of smoking conventional cigarettes and has little effect on smoking cessation. To prevent the spread of wrong cessation culture in social experience such as part-time work and smoking friends, right education on smoking cessation is necessary. Smoking prevention and smoking cessation education should be expanded in school and more emphasis should be put on right smoking cessation methods.