台灣青少年與成人電子煙使用盛行率從2014年到2018年的增加：與變化有關的社會人口特徵、其他物質使用、及憂鬱情緒

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of e-cigarettes use has been found to increase in recent years. However, few studies have examined the trends of e-cigarette use and the correlation of these trend with social demographics, other substances use and depression. We aimed to (1) compare the change in the prevalence of e-cigarette use in two waves of national surveys in 2014 and 2018, (2) examine the change across strata over sociodemographic features, use of other substances, and depression, and (3) examine the nicotine dependence among past year e-cigarette users in 2018. Method: Participants from the 2014 national survey of 17,837 individuals (a response rate of 62.2%, with 4445 adolescents and 13392adults) and the 2018 national survey of 18,626 individuals (a response rate of 64.6%, with 3598 adolescents and 15028 adults), aged 12 to 64 year, completed anonymously a computer-assisted self-interview. The questionnaire contained items on sociodemographic features, e-cigarettes use, other substance use, problematic use of tobacco (via Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence, FTND), alcohol (via Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, AUDIT), and other drugs (via Drug Abuse Screening Test, DAST), and depression (via Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, CES-D), among others. Results: Lifetime prevalence of e-cigarettes use increased from 2.0% in 2014 (0.8% for adolescents and 2.2% for adults) to 4.2% in 2018 (2.5% for adolescents and 4.3% for adults), with an increase of 2.2% (1.7% for adolescents and 2.1% for adults). The significantly increase in prevalence occurred across most sociodemographic strata, in which those strata of having higher prevalence also had greater increase in absolute difference. Regarding use of other substance, the increase in absolute difference was much greater for adolescents than for adults, e.g., an increase of 26.2% for cigarette users, 24.7% for areca nut users, whereas the figures were 7.4% and 6.1% for adults. People with mediate-to-high depression had greater increase in e-cigarette use, 1.7% for adolescents and 4.8% for adults, as compared to those with low score in depression, 1.7% for adolescents and 2.1% for adults. Among past year e-cigarette users, 20% of had nicotine dependence of medium to high magnitude. Conclusion: The prevalence of e-cigarette use had significantly increase from 2014 to 2018. Among them, the male gender, being aged 15 to 17 years or young adults, and some sociodemographic features were associated with greater changes in the prevalence. Among both adolescents and adults, greater changes in the prevalence were associated with cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, areca nut chewing, two levels of nicotine dependence, and two levels of problematic alcohol use. About one fifth of past year e-cigarettes users exhibited a medium to high degree of nicotine dependence.