Young adults' beliefs about modern oral nicotine products: Implications for uptake in nonvapers, dual use with e-cigarettes, and use to reduce/quit vaping

Abstract

Modern oral nicotine products (ONPs; nontherapeutic nicotine pouches, gums, lozenges, and gummies) may be perceived in ways that could promote uptake in nonvapers, dual use with e-cigarettes, or use to quit vaping. In this cross-sectional digital remote survey of 1,460 respondents aged 21-24 from Southern California, we examined beliefs about ONPs among past-30-day e-cigarette nonusers, users unmotivated to quit vaping, and users motivated to quit vaping. Positive beliefs about ONPs were reported by 31.8% of the overall sample and higher in past-30-day e-cigarette users (with or without quit motivation) than nonusers. Perceiving ONPs to be easy to conceal, convenient, and able to be used where vaping/smoking is not allowed were the most common types of beliefs reported. Among e-cigarette users with quit motivation (n = 142), interest in using ONPs to quit/reduce vaping (44.4%) was higher than interest in using medicinal nicotine gum/lozenges (23.4%), nicotine patch (17.6%), or prescription medications (16.6%). Interest in using ONPs to reduce/quit vaping (vs. no interest) was greater among participants who reported vaping ≥ 20 (vs. < 10) days in the past month, vaping ≥ 10 (vs. < 10) times per day, low/moderate (vs. high) quit vaping self-efficacy, and low/moderate (vs. high) desire to quit vaping. These findings suggest that: (a) appreciable subsets of the young adult population may hold positive beliefs about ONPs that could promote ONP uptake, particularly e-cigarette users and (b) some young adult e-cigarette users may be interested in using ONPs to reduce/quit vaping, particularly frequent vapers with relatively lower self-efficacy and desire to quit vaping. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1. Prevalence of Responses Indicating Level of Interest in Using Nontherapeutic Tobacco-Free Oral Nicotine or Medicinal Products to Reduce or Quit Vaping

Note. “Not at all” responses for each question (not depicted in figure) are included in the denominator for percentage calculations. Using binary responses (not interested vs. interested), difference in interest between tobacco-free oral nicotine products and other three products were tested using McNemar’s paired samples chi-square tests (vs. medicinal nicotine gum/lozenges, χ² = 11.3, p < .001; vs. nicotine transdermal patch, χ² = 15.6, p < .001; vs. prescription medications, χ² = 16.6, p < .001). X-axis = proportion of responses; Y-axis = product type.