• Jungmi Jun and Joon Kyoung Kim.
• School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA JUNJ@mailbox.sc.edu.
• Tob Control. 2020 Mar 22.

BackgroundWe 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.MethodsData 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.ResultsDespite 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.ConclusionsOur analysis indicates the potential of states' policy efforts to regulate e-cigarettes comprehensively in leading significant changes to e-cigarette prevalence in their populations.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

4 keywords...

hide…