Introduction
Public perceptions of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) remain poorly understood
because surveys are too costly to regularly implement and, when implemented, there
are long delays between data collection and dissemination. Search query surveillance
has bridged some of these gaps. Herein, ENDS’ popularity in the U.S. is reassessed
using Google searches.
Methods
ENDS searches originating in the U.S. from January 2009 through January 2015 were
disaggregated by terms focused on e-cigarette (e.g., e-cig) versus vaping (e.g., vapers); their geolocation (e.g., state); the aggregate tobacco control measures corresponding
to their geolocation (e.g., clean indoor air laws); and by terms that indicated the
searcher’s potential interest (e.g., buy e-cigs likely indicates shopping)—all analyzed in 2015.
Results
ENDS searches are rapidly increasing in the U.S., with 8,498,000 searches during 2014
alone. Increasingly, searches are shifting from e-cigarette- to vaping-focused terms,
especially in coastal states and states where anti-smoking norms are stronger. For
example, nationally, e-cigarette searches declined 9% (95% CI=1%, 16%) during 2014
compared with 2013, whereas vaping searches increased 136% (95% CI=97%, 186%), even
surpassing e-cigarette searches. Additionally, the percentage of ENDS searches related
to shopping (e.g., vape shop) nearly doubled in 2014, whereas searches related to health concerns (e.g., vaping risks) or cessation (e.g., quit smoking with e-cigs) were rare and declined in 2014.
Conclusions
ENDS popularity is rapidly growing and evolving. These findings could inform survey
questionnaire development for follow-up investigation and immediately guide policy
debates about how the public perceives the health risks or cessation benefits of ENDS.
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Published online: February 10, 2016
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© 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
