Sexy, trashy, cool: Perceptions of electronic cigarette users across sociodemographic groups and E-cigarette use among United States Air Force Airmen

E-cigarette use has increased in recent years. Military personnel have higher rates of e-cigarette use than civilian populations, with 15.3% of Air Force recruits using e-cigarettes. The current study assessed associations between perceptions of e-cigarette users and current use of e-cigarettes, and differences in sociodemographic character-istics to determine if there were different beliefs among different groups to inform intervention development among these straight-to-work young adults. Participants (N = 17,314) were United States Air Force Airmen (60.7% White, 29.7% women) who completed a survey during their first week of Technical Training. Regression results indicated that identifying as a man (B = 0.22, SE = 0.02), identifying as Black (B = 0.06, SE = 0.02), reporting younger age (B =-0.15, SE = 0.02), having less education (B =-0.04, SE = 0.02), and current e -cigarette use (B = 0.62, SE = 0.02) were associated with endorsing more positive e-cigarette user perceptions. Identifying as a woman (B =-0.04, SE = 0.02) and being younger (B =-0.06, SE = 0.02) were associated with endorsing more negative perceptions of e-cigarette users. Current e-cigarette use was inversely associated with negative e-cigarette user perceptions (B =-0.59, SE = 0.02). Differences across groups were found for individual e-cigarette user characteristics. Future intervention strategies among Airmen may benefit from addressing e -cigarette user perceptions to change use behaviors, as these perceptions may result in stigmatized beliefs related to e-cigarette users.

Automated summary

E-cigarette use has increased, particularly among military personnel. This study found that different sociodemographic characteristics were associated with different perceptions of e-cigarette users. Addressing these perceptions may be important in intervention strategies to change e-cigarette use behaviors.