Sociodemographic, personal, peer, and familial predictors of e-cigarette ever use in ESPAD Ireland: A forward stepwise logistic regression model

Joan Hanafin; Salome Sunday; Luke Clancy

doi:10.18332/tid/144234

Sociodemographic, personal, peer, and familial predictors of e-cigarette ever use in ESPAD Ireland: A forward stepwise logistic regression model

Tob Induc Dis. 2022 Feb 2:20:12. doi: 10.18332/tid/144234. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Joan Hanafin^{1

2}, Salome Sunday^{1

2}, Luke Clancy^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
² Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

Abstract

Introduction: E-cigarette ever use has risen significantly in recent years in Ireland, similar to trends elsewhere in Europe, the United States, and Asia-Pacific region. Results from ESPAD Ireland (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs) show teenage e-cigarette ever use increased from 18% (2015) to 37% (2019). Given this increase, our aim is to profile e-cigarette ever users and never users in this age group; to examine sociodemographic, personal, peer, and familial factors associated with e-cigarette ever use; and to suggest appropriate measures to reduce use.

Methods: A nationally representative stratified random sample of 50 ESPAD schools was surveyed in 2019, with 3495 students aged 15-17 years. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed using Stata version 16.

Results: E-cigarette ever use was significantly associated with ever smoking (AOR=4.15; 95% CI: 1.29-13.41), ever cannabis use (AOR=2.21; 95% CI: 1.11-4.41) and ever inhalants use (AOR=2.51; 95% CI: 1.07-5.88). Children of university-educated mothers had significantly higher odds of e-cigarette ever use (AOR=3.46; 95% CI: 1.40-8.54). Associated with reduced AORs were reading books for enjoyment (AOR=0.32; 95% CI: 0.16-0.64), living in households where smoking was regulated (AOR=0.53; 95% CI: 0.30-0.94), and perceiving moderate risk in trying e-cigarettes once or twice (AOR=0.20; 95% CI: 0.07-0.67).

Conclusions: E-cigarette ever use is part of a pattern of teenage polysubstance use including cigarette smoking, providing some support for the common liability theory. Regulation of smoking in the home, reading for enjoyment, and perceiving risk from e-cigarette use are associated with decreased likelihood of ever use, and higher parental education with increased likelihood. Thus, health education emphasizing the role of parents and risks of e-cigarette use is indicated to reduce the rise in e-cigarette ever use in teenagers.

Keywords: e-cigarette ever use; parental education; polysubstance use; smoking regulation; teenagers.