Current e-cigarette use among in-school adolescents in West Malaysia: Examining the interactions between sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle risk behaviours

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 1; p. e0263355
• Main Authors: Jane Ling, Miaw Yn, Ahmad, Norfazilah, Mohd Yusoff, Muhammad Fadhli, Lim, Kuang Hock
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 31-01-2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; Adolescents; Age; Alcohol; Alcohol use; Alcohols; Behavior; Biology and Life Sciences; Cigarette smoking; Cigarettes; Drug addiction; Drug use; Electronic cigarettes; Female; Forecasts and trends; Gender; Health aspects; Humans; Life Style; Lifestyles; Malaysia - epidemiology; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Minority & ethnic groups; Morbidity; Nicotine; Parental behavior; Parental influences; Parents; Pediatric research; People and Places; Population; Prevalence; Probability; Questionnaires; Risk analysis; Risk Factors; Risk taking; Risk-taking (Psychology); Sample size; Schools; Smoking; Smoking - epidemiology; Smoking and youth; Social aspects; Social Sciences; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic Factors; Students; Teenagers; Tobacco; Urban areas; Vaping; Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur Malaysia; Selangor Malaysia; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263355

Adolescent e-cigarette use has increased dramatically. Most e-cigarette liquids contain nicotine, which can harm the developing adolescent brain. Local studies examining the risk factors of adolescent e-cigarette use and interactions between its risk factors are limited. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of current e-cigarette use and its associated factors among in-school adolescents in West Malaysia. We also examined the possible sociodemographic characteristic, lifestyle risk behaviour and parental factor interactions that affect the probability of current e-cigarette use.
We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2017. Respondents aged 13-18 years were included in the study. The data were analysed using STATA (v.15).
The prevalence of current e-cigarette use was 9.1%. Male gender, older age, Malay ethnicity, schooling in urban area, current smoking, current alcohol use, current drug use, having parents that are not married and living together and parental tobacco product use were significantly associated with current e-cigarette use. There were significant interactions between: i) gender with age, ethnicity, current smoking, current alcohol use and current drug use, ii) ethnicity with current smoking and current alcohol use, iii) locality with ethnicity, current smoking and current alcohol use, iv) current drug use with age, ethnicity, current smoking and current alcohol use, v) parental marital status with gender, age and ethnicity, and vi) parental tobacco use with ethnicity and current smoking.
Our findings identify significant associations between sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle risk behaviours and parental factors with current e-cigarette use. They also provide new insight into the interactions between these factors that affect the probability of current e-cigarette use among West Malaysian adolescents. Efforts to tackle e-cigarette use in Malaysian adolescents should target sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle risk behaviours and parental factors such as smoking cessation intervention for parents.