Background: We examine the association among five types of state regulations on electronic cigarettes (defining e-cigarettes, special tax, packaging, youth access and licensure) and initiation and current usage of e-cigarettes in 50 US states and the District of Columbia.
Methods: Data came from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the US e-cigarette regulations-50 state review by the Public Health Law Center. Logistic regressions were used to determine the odds of initiation and current use of e-cigarettes among individuals aged 18-24, 25-34 and the whole sample, adjusting for socio-demographic covariates.
Results: Despite the short history of state laws on e-cigarettes, each of the five state laws was associated with lower odds of initiation and use of e-cigarettes in the whole sample. In the 18-24 age group, only the licensure was associated with lower initiation. In the 25-34 age group, the licensure and taxation were related to lower initiation and current usage. There were significant differences of e-cigarette initiation and usage based on the number of state laws regulating e-cigarettes.
Conclusions: Our analysis indicates the potential of states' policy efforts to regulate e-cigarettes comprehensively in leading significant changes to e-cigarette prevalence in their populations.
Keywords: electronic nicotine delivery devices; packaging and labelling; public policy; taxation.
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