Newspaper media representation of electronic cigarette use during pregnancy

Abstract

Background: Smoking during pregnancy is associated with many adverse foetal outcomes, and electronic cigarettes (EC) have the potential to aid women to quit smoking in pregnancy. The mass media influence how people feel about products and treatments, so it is important to establish how they portray EC use during pregnancy.

Methods: UK newspaper articles which mentioned EC use during pregnancy were identified using the database Lexis Library. Articles were assigned a category (positive, negative or neutral), and an inductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes within the articles.

Results: Of the 55 newspaper articles, 16 (29%) were positive, 32 (58%) were negative and 7 (13%) were neutral. Four overarching themes were found within the 55 articles: 'advice', 'impact on health of the foetus', 'uncertainty' and 'awareness'. Large increases in the frequency of articles reporting on EC were noticed between November 2015 and March 2016 and between February and March 2018.

Conclusions: The UK mass media mainly portray EC use during pregnancy as negative, which could impact women's decisions to use these devices in pregnancy. More research is needed to investigate the true effectiveness of EC to aid smoking cessation in pregnancy.

Keywords: pregnancy and childbirth disorders; public health; smoking.