Awareness of heated tobacco products among US Adults – Health information national trends survey, 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Heated Tobacco Products (HTP) have the potential to attain high uptake in the US. The current study estimated the prevalence of awareness, prevalence of use and the factors associated with awareness of HTP among US adults. Methods: This study included 3201 respondents from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5 Cycle 4 (2020). The prevalence of awareness of HTP and ever use of HTP among US adults were estimated. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to identify the factors associated with awareness of HTP. Results: About 15% of the adult US population were aware of HTP, while 2.2% had ever used HTP. Age between 35 and 49 years (aOR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.3–2.9; p-value = 0.003), male sex (aOR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.0–2.7; p-value = 0.04), lower income ($0–$9,999) (aOR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.3–6.9; p-value = 0.01), smoking on some days (aOR, 3.4; 95% CI, 1.2–9.4; p-value = 0.02) and moderately or extremely worrying about getting cancer (aOR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1–2.7; p-value = 0.03) were associated with higher odds of being aware of HTP; whereas, belief that there are so many cancer prevention recommendations, it’s hard to know which ones to follow (aOR, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3–0.8; p-value = 0.009) was associated with lower odds of being aware of HTP. Conclusions: A significant proportion of US adult population were aware of HTP in 2020. Given the recent high proliferation of e-cigarettes, potential health effects of the HTP products should be monitored by the regulators closely. Adequate surveillance and policy interventions are warranted in this regard.