E-cigarette Use and Smoking Cessation Among South Korean Adult Smokers: A Propensity Score-Matching Approach

Abstract

Research on the efficacy of e-cigarette use as a smoking cessation tool has yielded inconclusive results. Hence, the objective of this study was to identify the relationship between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation among South Korean adult smokers. This study used data from the sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2013-2015) of 2965 adult smokers aged 19 years and older. As statistical analysis methods, data were analyzed using the χ² test and multiple logistic regression. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to control selection bias, and sociodemographic and smoking-linked factors were used as covariates in PSM. According to the multiple logistic regression analysis, adult smokers who had not used e-cigarettes were more likely to attempt to quit smoking than those who had used e-cigarettes in the prematching (OR = 1.58; 95% CI = 1.18-2.12) and postmatching (OR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.08-2.44) samples. Thus, this study suggests that e-cigarette use among South Korean adult smokers was not related to smoking cessation.

Keywords: South Korea; adult smokers; e-cigarette use; propensity score matching; smoking cessation.