Why does it become so popular? The answer will surprise you

The reasons why people use electronic cigarettes are gradually changing. An increasing number of people use them to quit smoking, but do so in order to increase their social image, - this is the conclusion of the new study.

The results can have important public health consequences, as they can help guide initiatives to prevent the use of electronic cigarettes, researchers say.

Disadvantages of previous studies

Although scientists have previously studied why people prefer to use electronic cigarettes, in a new study they noted that in previous experiments the number of participants was limited.

In addition, the studies could include a series of "yes / no" or multiple-choice questions, which prevented respondents from responding in their own words, the scientists note in their report published on March 1 in the journal PLoS ONE.

A study conducted on Twitter

"How would conclusions change if we could hear what people say about electronic cigarettes to their friends, not to researchers?" - asked lead author John Ayers, a public health researcher at San Diego State University. To understand this, scientists used Twitter.

In the study, which was conducted during 2012-2015, they analyzed more than 3 million tweets about electronic cigarettes. The tweets that were originally included in the study contained such words or phrases as "electronic cigarette", "smoking electronic cigarette", E-CIG, "wipe" and others.

Of these tweets, then only those were chosen that dealt with the use of an electronic cigarette. For example, tweets like "I have an electronic cigarette and it helps me quit smoking" have been included, but such as "I just saw someone use an electronic cigarette" - are excluded.

The Main Reasons for Waping

And finally, the researchers classified the tweets, based on why people start smoking electronic cigarettes. As a result, in total, they identified seven main reasons: low cost, choice of fragrance, safety in use, the possibility to use indoors, a pleasant smell, rejection of ordinary cigarettes and social image.

Tweets for 2012 showed that the most common reason for wapping was the refusal to smoke conventional cigarettes. According to the study, 43 percent of tweets referred to this reason. Social image was the second most common reason, with 21 percent of tweets. The use of indoor facilities was in third place, with 17 percent.

Changing causes

By 2015, however, fewer than 30 percent of tweets have reported that the main reason for wicking is the ability to stop smoking normal cigarettes. The social image was the most common quoted reason, which is 37 percent of the tweets associated with the vypingov. The reason for indoor use also lost importance, and only 12 percent of tweets were cited to it, this is what the researchers found.

The scientists noted that their findings were confirmed by previous studies.

For example, such a query in the Google search engine as "the use of an electronic cigarette as a way to quit smoking" is significantly reduced in quantity. And the decrease in the reference to indoor use coincided with the time frame, when a number of cities and states prohibited the use of electronic cigarettes indoors.

At the same time, the advertising of electronic cigarettes is increasingly oriented towards the social image, the researchers note. This confirms the conclusion that the social image has become more significant as a cited reason for using the veiling.