IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i6p1084-d149265.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Weight Concerns and Use of Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes among Young Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Brooke L. Bennett

    (Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2500 Campus Rd, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA)

  • Pallav Pokhrel

    (Cancer Prevention in Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, 701 Ilalo St, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA)

Abstract

Higher weight concerns have been associated with higher cigarette smoking, particularly among women, partly because smoking is perceived to limit appetite for food. E-cigarettes are increasingly used as an alternative to combustible cigarettes and are widely believed to be less harmful than cigarettes. Currently it is not known whether weight concerns are associated with e-cigarette use among young adults. In this study, we tested the association between weight concerns and cigarette and e-cigarette use and use susceptibility among young adults. Cross-sectional data were collected from college students (N = 470; M age = 20.9; SD = 2.1; 65% women). Results indicated that weight concerns were significantly associated with lifetime and current cigarette smoking status, current cigarette smoking frequency and cigarette use susceptibility (among never smokers), adjusting for demographics variables. Weight concerns were not associated with lifetime or current e-cigarette use status or e-cigarette use susceptibility, adjusting for demographics and cigarette use status. However, higher weight concerns were associated with higher frequency of current e-cigarette use, adjusting for demographic variables and current cigarette smoking frequency. These findings imply that even though weight concerns may not motivate e-cigarette use as strongly as cigarette use, weight concerns may influence higher intensity of e-cigarette use among users.

Suggested Citation

  • Brooke L. Bennett & Pallav Pokhrel, 2018. "Weight Concerns and Use of Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes among Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-10, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:6:p:1084-:d:149265
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1084/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1084/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cawley, John & Markowitz, Sara & Tauras, John, 2004. "Lighting up and slimming down: the effects of body weight and cigarette prices on adolescent smoking initiation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 293-311, March.
    2. Austin, S.B. & Gortmaker, S.L., 2001. "Dieting and smoking initiation in early adolescent girls and boys: A prospective study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(3), pages 446-450.
    3. Messer, K. & Trinidad, D.R. & Al-Delaimy, W.K. & Pierce, J.P., 2008. "Smoking cessation rates in the United States: A comparison of young adult and older smokers," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(2), pages 317-322.
    4. French, S.A. & Perry, C.L. & Leon, G.R. & Fulkerson, J.A., 1994. "Weight concerns, dieting behavior, and smoking initiation among adolescents: A prospective study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(11), pages 1818-1820.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dominika Cichońska & Aida Kusiak & Barbara Kochańska & Jolanta Ochocińska & Dariusz Świetlik, 2019. "Influence of Electronic Cigarettes on Selected Antibacterial Properties of Saliva," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-7, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Cawley & Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder, 2013. "The Demand for Cigarettes as Derived from the Demand for Weight Control," NBER Working Papers 18805, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Courtemanche, Charles & Tchernis, Rusty & Ukert, Benjamin, 2018. "The effect of smoking on obesity: Evidence from a randomized trial," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 31-44.
    3. John Cawley & Sara Markowitz & John Tauras, 2006. "Obesity, Cigarette Prices, Youth Access Laws, and Adolescent Smoking Initiation," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 149-170, Winter.
    4. John Cawley & Davide Dragone & Stephanie Von Hinke Kessler Scholder, 2016. "The Demand for Cigarettes as Derived from the Demand for Weight Loss: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 8-23, January.
    5. Jennifer M. Mellor, 2011. "Do cigarette taxes affect children's body mass index? The effect of household environment on health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 417-431, April.
    6. Cawley, John & Markowitz, Sara & Tauras, John, 2004. "Lighting up and slimming down: the effects of body weight and cigarette prices on adolescent smoking initiation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 293-311, March.
    7. Tom Coupé & W. Robert Reed, 2021. "Do Negative Replications Affect Citations?," Working Papers in Economics 21/14, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    8. Liza Darrous & Ninon Mounier & Zoltán Kutalik, 2021. "Simultaneous estimation of bi-directional causal effects and heritable confounding from GWAS summary statistics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Samir S Soneji & Hai-Yen Sung & Brian A Primack & John P Pierce & James D Sargent, 2018. "Quantifying population-level health benefits and harms of e-cigarette use in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, March.
    10. G. Guindon, 2014. "The impact of tobacco prices on smoking onset in Vietnam: duration analyses of retrospective data," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(1), pages 19-39, January.
    11. Mette Rasmussen & Berit Lilienthal Heitmann & Hanne Tønnesen, 2013. "Effectiveness of the Gold Standard Programmes (GSP) for Smoking Cessation in Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-14, August.
    12. O'Neill, Donal & Sweetman, Olive, 2012. "The Consequences of Measurement Error when Estimating the Impact of BMI on Labour Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 7008, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Kateryna Bornukova & Mir M. Ali, 2018. "Will a Decline in Smoking Increase Body Weights? Evidence from Belarus," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 44(2), pages 190-210, April.
    14. Robert Goldfarb & Thomas C. Leonard & Steven Suranovic, 2006. "Modeling Alternative Motives for Dieting," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 115-131, Winter.
    15. Borghans, Lex & Golsteyn, Bart H.H., 2006. "Time discounting and the body mass index: Evidence from the Netherlands," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 39-61, January.
    16. Mocan, Naci & Raschke, Christian & Unel, Bulent, 2015. "The impact of mothers’ earnings on health inputs and infant health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 204-223.
    17. Jorge Medina, 2021. "Regional Effects of Perceived Risks of Harm on Cigarette Smoking among U.S. High School Seniors: Evidence from Monitoring the Future," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-12, August.
    18. Sabia, Joseph J. & Rees, Daniel I., 2012. "Body weight and wages: Evidence from Add Health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 14-19.
    19. Ce Shang, 2015. "The Effect of Smoke-Free Air Law in Bars on Smoking Initiation and Relapse among Teenagers and Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    20. Don Kenkel, 2012. "Health Behaviours Among Young People," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:6:p:1084-:d:149265. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.